THE OSTRICH AND HER PROGENY. 359 
The nest of the Ostrich is more than three feet in diameter ; it is 
only a hole dug in the sand, and surrounded by a kind of rampart 
composed of the dédrzs ; a trench is scratched round it outside to drain 
off the water. Each hen bird lays from fifteen to twenty eggs, 
according to circumstances. Phe eggs weigh from two to three 
pounds, and are each of them equal in contents to about twenty-five 
hen eggs. They are of a tolerable flavour, and often a very season- 
able meal to travellers, one of them being more than sufficient for 
the breakfast of two or three persons. 
Incubation usually takes six weeks, and is shared by both male 
and female birds ; severai of the latter often lay in the same nest, 
and live together on the best terms, under the control of one male. 
Levaillant remarked four females taking turns in sitting on thirty- 
eight eggs laid in the same nest ; they sat during the night only, 
the burning heat of the sun during the day being sufficient to maintain 
the necessary degree of warmth. He also observed that a certain 
number of the eggs were not sat upon, but were put aside to serve 
as nourishment for the young ones after they were hatched. 
It is a strange circumstance that the cry of the Ostrich so much 
resembles that of the lion when in search of prey that they are often 
confused. Dr. Livingstone says that with all his experience he has 
been frequently deceived, and that only the quick ear of a native can 
detect the difference. . 
Want of affection for her progeny was long such a subject of 
reproach to the Ostrich that she was looked upon as the most striking 
example of the hard-hearted mother. Thus, the Hebrews accepted 
the Ostrich as the symbol of insensibility, because she left her eggs 
upon the sand, without troubling herself, as Job says, about the 
dangers to which they might be exposed. Jeremiah, too, laments over 
her that she is devoid of parental affection. All these accusations are 
quite unfounded ; the Ostrich does not abandon her eggs, neither 
does she desert her young, although they are well covered at their 
birth with a thick warm down, and can from the first run about and 
provide for their own wants. On the contrary, she keeps them near 
her until they are almost full-grown, and defends them against every 
enemy. Mr. Cumming with his companions came suddenly one day 
on a dozen young ostriches no larger than full-grown grouse. ‘‘ The 
mother,” he says, ‘tried all she could to deceive us, just like a wild 
duck ; first she ran away, extending her wings; then she threw 
herself on the ground as if she was wounded ; whilst the male bird 
cunningly conducted the young ones in an opposite direction.” 
Livingstone on several occasions met with broods of young 
