540 



ZOOLOGY. 



valuable as articles of commerce, is the largest bird now liv- 

 ing, being 2-2-7 metres (6-8 feet) high. It can outrun a. 

 horse, and lives in flocks. It lays about thirty large white 

 eggs in a nest in th sand ; they are covered in the day- 

 time by the hen or left exposed to the sun, while at night 

 the male sits over and guards them. In Cape Colony, os- 

 trich-culture has become an important business : in 1865 







Fig. 462. Great Auk. From Coues' Key. 



there were only eighty individuals on the ostrich farms ; in 

 1875 there were 32,247 ostriches, either free or in parks 

 where Lucerne grass is cultivated as food for these useful 

 birds. The South American ostrich is in Patagonia hunted 

 for its feathers. During the Eocene Tertiary period a gi- 

 gantic ostrich-like bird (Diatryma Cope), twice as large as 



