Nicobar Megapode - Description

Description

Megapodes are so named for their large feet and like others in the group, this species is fowl like with dark brown plumage, a short tail and large feet and claws. The tarsus is bare with the hind toe situated on the same level as the front toes unlike those of other Galliform birds, enabling them to grasp objects better than other game birds. The tarsus has broad flat strip like scales on the front. The tail is short with twelve feathers. The head is more grey with a rufous crest and bare reddish facial skin. The males and females are very similar but the male is dark brown overall while the female has more grey on the underparts. Young birds have a fully feathered face and hatchlings are small quail-like with rufous barring on the wings and back. The nominate subspecies is paler than abbotti from the islands south of the Sombrero Channel.

Read more about this topic:  Nicobar Megapode

Famous quotes containing the word description:

    The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.
    Horace Walpole (1717–1797)

    Once a child has demonstrated his capacity for independent functioning in any area, his lapses into dependent behavior, even though temporary, make the mother feel that she is being taken advantage of....What only yesterday was a description of the child’s stage in life has become an indictment, a judgment.
    Elaine Heffner (20th century)

    It is possible—indeed possible even according to the old conception of logic—to give in advance a description of all ‘true’ logical propositions. Hence there can never be surprises in logic.
    Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)