136 LEAVES EROM THE 



were it not so difficult to find persons who will use tlieir 

 eyes to some purpose. 



The careful preparation and anxious concealment mani- 

 fested by the generality of birds in the process of nidifi- 

 cation can only be equalled by the ardour of the conse- 

 quent incubation. But there is no rule without an ex- 

 ception, as we shall presently see. 



In the Book of Job* we find mention made of the 

 ostrich: — 



Which leaveth his egges in the earth, and maketh them hote in 

 the dust, 



And forgetteth that the foote might scatter them, or that the 

 wilde beast might brake them. 



Hee sheweth himselfe cruell unto his yong ones, as they were 

 not his, and is without feare, as if he travailed in vaine. 



For God hath deprived him of Wisedome, and hath given him 

 no part of understanding. 



The following note is appended to v. 17: — ■ 



They write that the ostrich covereth her egges in the sand, and 

 because the countrey is hote, and the sun still keepeth them warme, 

 they are hatched. 



The masculine gender is used in the text, and we know 

 that in a kindred genus, the emeu, or New Holland cas- 

 sowary, -[- the eggs are hatched by the male. But there 

 can be no doubt that ostriches incubate, though during 

 the heat of the day the parent birds may leave them to 

 the high temperature of the climate in order to avoid a 

 degree of heat which might be fatal to the vitality of the 

 eggs. Captain Lyon states that all the Arabs agree re- 

 specting the manner in which these birds sit on their 

 eggs. They are not, he says, left to be hatched by the 

 warmth of the sun, but the parent bird forms a rough 

 nest, in which she covers from fourteen to eighteen eggs, 

 and regularly sits on them in the same manner as the 



* Chap, xxxix. v. 17 et seq. j Barker's Bible, 1613. 

 t Dromaius Novce Hollandice. 



