FAMILY CARES — BUILDING THE HOME. 145 



limited. On rare occasions, as on that of the 

 great vole plague in Scotland a few years since, 

 owls congregated and bred so plentifully in the 

 locality where the voles were most numerous 

 that they might almost be described as forming 

 owl colonies. 



Our next and last phase of this subject would 

 seem, at first sight, to show a tendency more or 

 less real, to shift the burden and responsibility 

 of family cares, either upon other birds or upon 

 inanimate incubators. Could we trace back these 

 cases to their origin we should probably find 

 that indifference to the welfare and fortunes of 

 the offspring followed upon a slow process of 

 weaning, and that the parental affection had be- 

 come smothered as a consequence of " circum- 

 stances over which they had no control." 



The beginnings of this curious phenomenon are 

 indicated in the nesting of our grebes and rails. 

 These seem to endeavour to lessen the labours of 

 incubation by resorting to the heat generated 

 by decaying vegetable matter dragged from the 

 weeds in the vicinity of the nest. This is care- 

 fully deposited upon the eggs whenever the 

 sitting bird leaves the nest. 



Cowper was a little hard upon the ostrich, 

 and cast rather a reflection upon its Maker, 

 when he wrote : — 



"The ostrich, silliest of the feathered kind, 

 And form'd of God without a parent's mind, 

 Commits her eggs incautious to the dust, 

 Forgetful that the foot may crush the trust." 



yet there was truth in what he said. 



The facts which have been lucidly summed 

 K 



