TJVO FATHER BIRDS. 



and the nest from enemies, the Ruff spends his time 

 with the other males, fighting continual duels, until 

 the summer comes. Then his collar gradually drops 

 off, and the males that have been fighting all the 

 spring go off together in 

 peaceful flocks. 



The male Ostrich has 

 a very different charac- 

 ter from the quarrelsome 

 and neglectful Ruff. The 

 Ostrich, like our barn- 

 yard rooster, has several 

 hens. AH lay eggs in the 

 same nest, which is noth- 

 ing but a pit scraped out 

 in the sand. In this 

 sometimes thirty eggs are laid. Every night the male 

 Ostrich broods on this great pile. If the young are 

 threatened, the male defends them, or tries to lead the 

 enemy astray by pretending that he is wounded or 

 lame, just as the mother Grouse does here. 



Of the two fathers, the Ruff is by far the hand- 

 somer. The bare red neck of the Ostrich is ugly 

 enough, but uglier when compared with the Ruff's 

 fine collar. Ask their wives, however, about it, and 

 perhaps they will say, " Handsome is that handsome 

 does." 



The Ruff. 



