664 OS GRICE. 
former existence in most parts of the south-western desert-tracts, 
in few of which it is now to be found. Xenophon’s notice of its 
abundance in Assyria (Anabasis, 1. 5) is well known. It probably 
still lingers in the wastes of Kirwan in eastern Persia, whence 
examples may occasionally stray northward to those of Turkestan,} 
even near the Lower Oxus; but the assertion, often repeated, as to 
its former occurrence in Baloochistan or Sindh, though not incredible, 
seems to rest on testimony as yet too slender for acceptance. 
Apparently the most northerly limit of the Ostrich’s ordinary range 
at the present day cannot be further than that portion of the Syrian 
Desert lying directly to the eastward of Damascus ; and, within the 
limits of what may be called Palestine, Canon Tristram (Fauna and 
Flora of Palestine, p. 139) regards it as but a straggler from central 
Arabia, though we have little information as to its appearance and 
distribution in that country. Africa, however, is still, as in ancient 
days, the continent in which the Ostrich most flourishes, and from 
the confines of Barbary to those of the European settlements in the 
south it appears to inhabit every waste sufficiently extensive to 
afford it the solitude it loves, and in many wide districts, where the 
influence of the markets of civilization is feebly felt, to be still 
almost as abundant as ever. Yet even there it has to contend with 
deadly foes in the many species of wild beasts which frequent the 
same tracts and prey upon its eggs and young—the latter especially ; 
and Lichtenstein long ago remarked that if it were not for its 
numerous enemies “the multiplication of Ostriches would be quite 
unexampled.” The account given of the habits of the species by 
this naturalist, who “had excellent opportunities of observing it 
during his three years’ travels in South Africa, is perhaps one of the 
best we have, and since his narrative? has been neglected by. most 
of its more recent historians we may do well by calling attention 
thereto. Though sometimes assembling in troops of from thirty to 
fifty, and then generally associating with zebras or with some of the 
larger antelopes, Ostriches commonly, and especially in the breeding- 
season, live in companies of not more than four or five, one of which 
is a cock and the rest are hens. All the latter lay their eggs in one 
and the same nest, a shallow pit scraped out by their feet, with the 
earth heaped around to form a kind of wall against which the outer- 
most circle of eggs rest. As soon as ten or a dozen eggs are laid, 
the cock begins to brood, always taking his place on them at night- 
fall surrounded by his wives, while by day they rclieve one another, 
1 Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub quote a passage from Remusat’s Remarques sur 
Vextension de V Empire Chinoise, stating that in about the seventh century of our 
era a live ‘‘ camel-bird” was sent as a present with an embassy from Turkestan 
to China. 
2M. H. K. Lichtenstein, Reise im siidlichen Africa, ii. pp. 42-45 (Berlin; 
1812). 
