THE OSTUICH. 



449 



from two to six Ibinalcs. Tlio hens lu}' all their eggs together in one nest, the nest being 

 merely a shallow cavity scraped in the ground, of snch dimensions as to be conveniently 

 covered by one of these gigantic birds in incubation. An ingenious device is employed 

 to save space, and give at the same time to all the eggs their due share of warmth. Each 

 one of the eggs is made to stand with the narrow end on the bottom of the nest, and the 

 broad end upwards ; and the earth which has been scraped out to form the cavity is 

 employed to contine the outer circle, and keep the whole in the proper position. The 

 hens relieve each other in the task of incubation during the day, and the male takes his 

 turn at night, when his superior strength is required to protect the eggs or the newly- 

 fledged young from the jackalls, tiger-cats, and other enemies. Some of these animals, it 

 is said, are not unfrequentty found lying dead near the nest, destroyed by a stroke from 

 the foot of this powerful bird. 



No fewer than sixty eggs are sometimes found in and around an ostrich's nest ; but a 

 smaller number is more common ; and incubation is occasionally performed by a single 

 pair of ostriches. Each female lays from tweh'e to sixteen eggs. They continue to lay 

 during incubation, and even after the young brood are hatched. The supernumerary eggs 



FOOT OF THE OSTKICH. 



FOOT OF THE CAMFL. 



are not placed in the nest, but around it, being designed to aid the nourishment of the 

 young birds, which, though as large as a pullet when first hatched, are probably unable 

 at once to digest the hard and acrid food on which the old ones subsist. The period of 

 incubation is from thirty-six to forty days. Occasionally the nest is left by all the birds 

 in the middle of the day, the heat of the sun being then sufficient to keep the eggs at the 

 proper temperature. 



Of the ostrich Dr. Shaw says, when alluding to the statement in reference to this bird 

 in the Book of Job : — "On the least noise or trivial occasion she forsakes her eggs, or her 

 young ones, to which, perhaps, she never returns ; or, if she does, it may be too late 

 either to restore life to the one, or to preserve the lives of the others. Agreeable to this 

 account, the Arabs meet sometimes with whole nests of these eggs undisturbed ; some of 

 them are sweet and good, others are addled and corrupted ; others, again, have their 

 young ones of diflerent growths, according to the time, it may be presumed, they may 

 have been forsaken of the dam. They often meet with a few of the little ones, no bigger 

 than well-grown pullets, half-starved, straggKng and moaning about like so many 

 distressed orphans for their mother. In this manner the ostrich may be said to be 

 hardened against her young ones, as though thev were not her's ; her labour in watching 



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