204 



THE BLACK, OR GREAT OSTRICH. 



the Ostrich, " which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them 

 in the dust ; and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the 

 ■wild beast may break them. She is hardened against her young-ones, 

 as though they were not hers : her labor is in vain, without fear , 

 because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to 

 her understanding." Recent travellers have, however, assured ua 

 that no bird has a stronger affection for her offspring than this, and 

 that none watches her eggs with g-reater assiduity. i>ut though she 

 sometimes leaves them by day, she always carefully broods over them 

 by night; and Kolben, who saw great numbers of Ostriches at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, affirms, that they sit on their eggs like other 



OSTBICH FEEDIIfa 



birds, and that the males and females take this office by tunis, as he 

 Iiad frequent opportunities of observing. Nor is it more true that 

 they forsake their young-ones as soon as they are excluded from the 

 shell. On the contrary, these are not able to walk for several days 

 after they are hatched. During this time the parents are very assiduous, 

 in supplying them with grass and water, and will encounter every 

 danger in their defence. The females which are united to one male 

 deposit all their eggs in the same place, to the numl^er of ten or twelve 

 each: these they hatch altogether, the male also taking his turn of 

 sitting on them. Between sixty and seventy eggs have sometimes been 

 found in one nest. The time of incubation is six weeli? 



