INTRODUCTION. 9 
eggs therein deposited are hatched, not, as with other Birds, 
by “the warmth of the body of the parent, but by the heat given 
out by decomposing matter which they are careful to enclose 
within their mounds. This absence of parental care in hatching 
results in the young Birds being forced at once to take care ot 
themselves as soon as hatched. Therewith their development 
within the egg is so complete that they come forth full-fiedged, 
so that they can fly at once, though it seems that they may 
actually attain a considerable size before they quit the mound *. 
Fig, 5. 



The Ocellated Mound-builder (Leipoa ocellata) 
Returning to our own domain, we may note that, relatively 
small as are the British Islands, they are nevertheless the exclu- 
sive home of a much valued Bird—the true Grouse (Lagopus 
scoticus). Itis one member of a genus the species of which range 
through the northern lands of ‘both hemis spheres, being one of 
a number of genera which may be called “circumpolar.” Not 
only is it truly indigenous to the United Kingdom, but it is 
the 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. 
