. Birds: the elements of ornithology . twigs. Australia has no birds to show, like those hitherto enumeratedalthough its curious mound-building Birds, or Megapodes,go by the misnomer of Brush-turkeys,—no doubt on accountof the wattled skin of the head and neck which some of thempossess. One handsome kind (Leipoa ocellata) has its plumagedecorated with eye-like markings. These Megapodes are cele-brated for the mounds they raise to receive their eggs. The nfTBOBirOTION. 9 eggs therein deposited are hatched, not, as with other Birds,by the warmth of the body of the parent, but by the heat givenou
. Birds: the elements of ornithology . twigs. Australia has no birds to show, like those hitherto enumeratedalthough its curious mound-building Birds, or Megapodes,go by the misnomer of Brush-turkeys,—no doubt on accountof the wattled skin of the head and neck which some of thempossess. One handsome kind (Leipoa ocellata) has its plumagedecorated with eye-like markings. These Megapodes are cele-brated for the mounds they raise to receive their eggs. The nfTBOBirOTION. 9 eggs therein deposited are hatched, not, as with other Birds,by the warmth of the body of the parent, but by the heat givenout by decomposing matter which they are careful to enclosewithin their mounds. This absence of parental care in hatchingresults in the young Birds being forced at once to take care ofthemselves as soon as hatched. Therewith their developmentwithin the egg is so complete that they come forth full-fledged,so that they can fly at once, though it seems that they mayactually attain a considerable size before they quit the mound *. Fig. The Ocellated Mound-builder {Leipoa ocellata). Beturning to our own domain, we may note that, relativelysmall as are the British Islands, they are nevertheless the exclu-sive home of a much valued Bird—the true Grouse (Lagopusseoticus). It is one member of a genus the species of which rangethrough the northern lands of both hemispheres, being one of•a number of genera which may be called circumpolar. Notonly is it truly indigenous to the United Kingdom, but it isthe one only Bird which is found here and nowhere else in the * See a note by Mr. Whitehead in The Ibis for 1888, p. 411. 10 ELEMENTS OF OBlflTHOLOGy whole world. Its giant cousin, the Capercailzie (Tetrao uro-gallus), ranges from Scandinavia and the Siberian valley of theTenesay to the Altai Mountains, the Alps, and the Pyrenees. A great contrast to the arboreal, polygamous, wild Caper-cailzie, is that familiar denizen of our home-fields—the Par-tridge (PerdicB cinerea), which fait
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