128 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



as he meekly implores you to spare his eggs. This 

 suppliant posture is, however, not to be trusted ; and, if 

 tackey-less, you had better remain at the nest until 

 assistance — or night — comes, for if once the positions of 

 yourself and bird are reversed, " Richard's himself 

 again." He squats, no longer in servile entreaty, but in 

 defiance ; and his challenge is promptly followed by a 

 charge. The hen ostrich, being destitute of a voice, lias 

 but one way of calling her chicks, which is by that 

 same rattlin!]^ and rustlinor of the wiiinrs. 



In strong contrast to the usual anxiety of the 

 paternal ostrich for his nest was one case of which we 

 heard. In a breeding-camp, containing a cock and two 

 hens, troublesome complications had arisen. One hen 

 persisted in sitting, while the other was as resolutely 

 bent on laying ; and, the struggles of the two rivals for 

 the possession of the nest being extremely perilous to 

 the eggs, the Boer to whom the trio belonged removed 

 the laying hen from the enclosure. Now came the 

 cock's turn to be excited. The departed hen was 

 evidently his favourite wife ; and, disconsolate at her 

 loss, he ran restlessly about the camp for some time, 

 brooming repeatedly ; then, as if struck by some 

 sudden impulse — probably of spite against his master 

 — he ran to the nest, on which he deliberately jumped 

 till he had broken every egg. 



One of our birds was a morose old bachelor. 

 Whether he had remained sir-^le from choice, or 

 whether his surly temper had made him so unpopular 

 that no hen would cast in her lot with him, we knew 



