Note 6 — Preface

The tabon, also called “the mound-builder” (Megapodius cumingi). Its eggs are highly prized by the natives as an article of food; they rob the deposit made by the birds. After each egg is deposited, the parent birds (several pairs of whom often frequent the same spot) scratch earth over it, thus gradually raising a mound of considerable size. See description of this bird in Report of U.S. Philippine Commission for 1900, iii, pp. 314, 315.