_Food habits._--Takatsukasa (1932:16) comments, "My collector reports to me that this bird diets on insects and tender shoots which it gets from under the soil by scratching with its large and powerful feet." According to Captain Tetens, as noted by Takatsukasa, the food of the bird consists of insects and berries. Birds taken by the NAMRU2 party had the following food items in their stomachs: adult female--2 cc. seeds, grit; adult female--3 cc. crab parts, grit; adult female--2 cc. seeds, sand; male chick--1 cc. ground food, grit; female chick--1 cc. ground food, grit, in crop 3 cc. small wood roaches (Blattidae). _Parasites._--Wharton and Hardcastle (1946:294) obtained the chigger (Acarina), _Neoschöngastia yeomansi_, from the megapode at Palau. Uchida (1918:486, 487) found the bird lice (Mallophaga), _Goniocotes minor_ and _Lipeurus sinuatus_, on megapodes from the Palaus. _Remarks._--The NAMRU2 party arrived at the Palau Islands on August 23, 1945, with little notion that the megapode would be found on the war-torn island of Peleliu. As reported by the author (1946b:209 and 1948:46) we found birds in small numbers in the relatively undisturbed areas of rough coral covered by jungle and a few birds in the heavy matting of viny and brushy vegetation which was rapidly covering the battlefields. The finding of a higher population on the more isolated and relatively undisturbed offshore islets (Ngabad, Garakayo) by the NAMRU2 party was an observation similar to those of Takatsukasa (1932:15, 16) and Coultas (field notes). Takatsukasa (1932:16) remarks, "Dr. Finsch said that this Megapode frequents nearly all the islands of the Pelew Group ... but it is very noticeable that this bird has either disappeared, or only very rarely exists in the following islands: Koror, Ngarekobasanga, and especially the main island of Babelthuap." He quotes Otto Finsch as remarking that, "It seems that the bird occasionally moves from one island to another, as the bird is a good flier." Takatsukasa continues, "According to Tetens, this Megapode runs very swiftly among the bushes, and when it is startled it takes to the nearest tree.... Captain Wilson says nothing about the Megapode, but Dr. Finsch wrote that Captain Wilson is probably referring to the egg of this bird under 'Wild Fowls,' when he said that the natives of the Palaus do not eat the flesh of the birds, but they go to the woods and bring back the eggs; they do not appreciate the newly laid eggs, but they consider it as a delicacy to swallow the well advanced embryo."