664 OSTRICH 



former existence in most parts of the south-western desert-tracts, 

 in few of which it is now to be found. Xenophon's notice of its 

 abundance in Assyria (Anabasis, i. 5) is well known. It probably 

 still lingers in the wastes of Kirwan in eastern Persia, whence 

 examples may occasionally stray northward to those of Turkestan, ^ 

 even near the Lower Oxus ; but the assertion, often repeated, as to 

 its former occurrence in Baloochistan or Sindh, though not incredible, 

 seems to rest on testimony as yet too slender for acceptance. 

 Apparently the most northerly limit of the Ostrich's ordinary range 

 at the present day cannot be further than that portion of the Syrian 

 Desert lying directly to the eastward of Damascus ; and, within the 

 limits of what may be called Palestine, Canon Tristram (Fauna and 

 Flora of Palestine, p. 139) regards it as but a straggler from central 

 Arabia, though we have little information as to its appearance and 

 distribution in that country. Africa, however, is still, as in ancient 

 days, the continent in which the Ostrich most flourishes, and from 

 the confines of Barbary to those of the European settlements in the 

 south it appears to inhabit every waste sufficiently extensive to 

 afford it the solitude it loves, and in many wide districts, where the 

 influence of the markets of civilization is feebly felt, to be still 

 almost as abundant as ever. Yet even there it has to contend with 

 deadly foes in the many species of wild beasts which frequent the 

 same tracts and prey upon its eggs and young — the latter especially ; 

 and Lichtenstein long ago remarked that if it were not for its 

 numerous enemies " the multiplication of Ostriches would be quite 

 unexampled." The account given of the habits of the species by 

 this naturalist, who had excellent opportunities of observing it 

 during his three years' travels in South Africa, is perhaps one of the 

 best we have, and since his narrative ^ has been neglected by most 

 of its more recent historians we may do well by calling attention 

 thereto. Though sometimes assembling in troops of from thirty to 

 fifty, and then generally associating with zebras or with some of the 

 larger antelopes. Ostriches commonly, and especially in the breeding- 

 season, live in companies of not more than four or five, one of which 

 is a cock and the rest are hens. All the latter lay their eggs in one 

 and the same nest, a shallow pit scraped out by their feet, with the 

 earth heaped around to form a kind of wall against which the outer- 

 most circle of eggs rest. As soon as ten or a dozen eggs are laid, 

 the cock begins to brood, always taking his place on them at night- 

 fall surrounded by his wives, while by day they relieve one another, 



^ Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub quote a passage from Remusat's Remarques sur 

 Vexteiision de V Empire Gliinoise, stating that in about the seventh century of our 

 era a live " camel-bird" was sent as a present with an embassy from Turkestan 

 to China. 



- M. H. K. Lichtenstein, Meisc im sudlichen Africa, ii. pp. 42-45 (Berlin •■ 

 1812). 



