STRUTHIOUS BIRDS 275 



for four or five days distributed judiciously about 

 their saddles." During the non-breeding season 

 numbers of both sexes consort together. Another 

 very remarkable fact in the habits of the Ostrich 

 (as well as other Struthious birds) is its association 

 with zebras and antelopes. Mr. Selous records 

 having seen nine Ostriches — four of them males — 

 consorting with an old wildebeest bull. During 

 the breeding season each male Ostrich gathers two, 

 three, or even four females round him, and a place 

 is selected in which the eggs are deposited. It is 

 said that all the hens lay in the same nest, which 

 is a deep hollow in the sand scratched out by the 

 feet of the breeding birds, the excavated material 

 forming a rampart round it. Here thirty or more 

 eggs will be deposited in circles, and upon these 

 the old male broods at nightfall, commencing his 

 task when about a third of the number are laid. 

 The eggs do not seem to be covered during the 

 daytime, the sun furnishing the warmth necessary 

 for their incubation. The hen birds are said to 

 remain in the vicinity of the huge nest to assist in 

 driving off beasts of prey. Outside the nest some 

 twenty or thirty eggs are also laid, and these, 

 some observers assert, are to furnish food for the 

 newly-hatched young. The old Ostriches are 



