II STRUTHIONIDAE 29 
the lowing of an ox; but Ostriches are, as a rule, decidedly silent. 
In a state of nature the food consists chiefly of herbage, including 
seeds and fruits; in captivity the diet is of every description, 
and even in a wild condition small mammals, birds, reptiles, and 
insects are eaten, with a quantity of grit to aid digestion. In 
confinement the birds become very tame, and will then swallow 
bones, nails, and the like—in fact almost anything they can pick 
up. They can exist for a long time without water, but drink 
regularly when opportunity offers; they show a liking for salt, 
and will bathe in the sea or in rivers, immersed up to the neck. 
The hens belonging to one cock lay in the same nest, which is a 
fairly shallow excavation dug in sand or dry soil, and surrounded 
by the material thrown out during the process, or more rarely by 
an edging of grass. The spot is hard to discover in the desert, the 
stride being too long for tracks to be of much assistance. More 
than thirty yellowish-white eggs are sometimes deposited within 
the pit in circular arrangement, and many more are dropped 
around, to serve, it is asserted, for food for the newly-hatched 
young; in the wild state, however, the average number 1s 
probably less. The contents, equal to those of some two dozen 
hens’ eggs, are used for food by the natives, the shells forming 
convenient pots for water and so forth. The cock undertakes 
almost the whole duty of incubation, bemg occasionally releved 
by the hens during the daytime ;' but when the sun is hot no 
brooding is necessary, though a covering of sand is superposed: to 
euard the spot from the depredations of marauders. The chicks, 
which run from the shell, are hatched in six or seven weeks, and 
are accompanied by both parents, the male often counterfeiting 
wounds to draw away the intruder, circling around with drooping 
wings or throwing himself down as if in extremities. 
Ostriches were well known to the ancients, who used the 
plumes for ornament, as we do; these were considered emblems of 
justice from the equality of the two webs, or were worn in token 
of victory, as is still done in some parts of Africa. The words 
of Aristotle—who was followed by Pliny in the statement that the 
Ostrich was part quadruped, part bird—combine with those of 
Xenophon to bear witness to this knowledge, while monuments, 
inscriptions, and even the Bible tell the same tale. In the Sahara 
and elsewhere these birds are hunted with horses and camels, 
1 P. L. Sclater, P.Z.S. 1895, p. 401. 
