OSTRICH 665 
more it would seem to guard their common treasure from jackals 
and small beasts-of-prey than directly to forward the process of 
hatching, for that is often left wholly to the sunt Some thirty 
eggs are laid in the nest, and round it are scattered perhaps as many 
more. ‘These last are said to be broken by the old birds to serve 
as nourishment for the newly-hatched chicks, whose stomachs cannot 
bear the hard food on which their parents thrive. The greatest 
care is taken by them not only to place the nest where it may not 
be discovered, but to avoid being seen when going to or from it, 
and their solicitude for their tender young is no less. Andersson 
in his Lake N’gami (pp. 253-269) has given a lively account of the 
pursuit by himself and Mr. Francis Galton of a brood of Ostriches, 
in the course of which the father of the family flung himself on the 
ground and feigned being wounded to distract their attention from 
his offspring. Though the Ostrich ordinarily inhabits the most arid 
districts, it needs water to drink; and, moreover, it will frequently 
bathe, sometimes even, according to Von Heuglin, in the sea. 
The question whether to recognize more than one species of 
Ostrich, the Struthio camelus of Linnzus, has been for some years 
agitated without leading to a satisfactory solution.? It has long 
been known that, while eges from North Africa present a perfectly 
smooth surface, those from South Africa are pitted (see page 190, 
note 4). It has also been observed that northern birds have the 
skin of the parts not covered with feathers flesh-coloured, while 
this skin is bluish in southern birds, and hence the latter have been 
thought to need specific designation as S. australis. More recently 
examples from the Somali country have been described as forming 
a distinct species under the name of S. molybdophanes,® from the 
leaden colour of their naked parts. 
The genus Struthio forms the type of one group of the Subclass 
RATIT#, which differs so widely from the rest, in points that have 
been concisely set forth by Prof. Huxley (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, 
p. 419), as to justify us in regarding it as an Order, to which the 
- name Struthiones may be applied; but that term, as well as 
1 By those whose experience is derived from the observation of captive 
Ostriches this fact has been disputed. But, to say nothing of the effects of the 
enforced monogamy in which such birds live, the difference of the circumstances 
in which they find themselves, and in particular their removal from the heat- 
retaining sands of the desert and its burning sunshine, is enough to account 
for the change of habit. Von Heuglin also (p. 933) is explicit on this point. 
That hen Ostriches while on duty crouch to avoid detection is only natural, and 
this habit seems to have led hasty observers to suppose they were really brooding. 
2 Dr. Gadow tells me that the discrepancy of several accounts of the Ostrich’s 
anatomy is such as to suggest the possibility of more than one species. 
3 Apparently first noticed in a Berlin newspaper (Sonntagsb. d. Norddeutsch. 
Allgem. Zeitung) by Dr. Reichenow, 16th Sept. 1883, and later, Mitth. Orn. Ver. 
Wien, 1883, tab., and Jowrn. f. Orn. 1883, p. 399. 
