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OSTRICHES. 



twenty-six miles an hour. It cannot be very much above that, 

 and is therefore slower than a railway locomotive. They are 

 sometimes shot by the horsemen making a cross-cut to their 

 undeviating course ; but few Englishmen ever succeed in killing 

 them. The ostrich begins to lay her eggs before she has fixed 

 on a spot for a nest, which is only a hollow a {(iw inches deep in 

 the sand, and about a yard in diameter. Solitary eggs, named 

 by the Bechuans * losella,' arc thus found lying forsaken all over 



the country, and become a prey to the jackal. She seems averse to 

 risking a spot for a nest, and often lays her eggs in that of another 

 ostrich ; so that as many as forty-five have been found in one nest. 

 Some eggs contain small concretions of the matter which forms 

 the shell, as occurs also in the case of the common fowl : this 

 has given rise to the idea of stones in the eggs. Both male and 

 female assist in the incubation ; but the number of females being 

 always the greatest, it is probable that cases occur in which the 

 females have the entire charge. Several eggs lie out of the nest, 

 and are thought to be intended as food for the first of the newly- 

 hatched brood, till the rest come out, and enable the whole to 

 start in quest of food. I have seen, several times, newly-hatched 



