320 OSTRICHES. 



food, and all night long she covers them with the ton- 

 el e rest care. 



The American Ostriches (Struthio Rliea,} are not only 

 most affectionate, but sociable, laying together in the 

 same nest, or rather the same hole, showing equal atten- 

 tion to their joint broods ; and that they are not defi- 

 cient in attachment towards each other, the following 

 affecting story fully proves. 



A pair of Ostriches had long been kept in the Zoolo- 

 gical Gardens, at Paris. The skylight over their heads 

 having been broken, the glaziers proceeded to repair it, 

 and, in the course of their work, let fall a triangular 

 piece of glass. Not long after this, the female Ostrich 

 was taken ill, and died in an hour or two, in great 

 agony. The body was opened, and the throat and sto- 

 mach were found to have been dreadfully lacerated by 

 the sharp corners of the glass, which she had swallowed. 

 From the moment his companion was taken from him, 

 the male had no rest ; he appeared to be incessantly 

 searching for something, and gradually wasted away. 

 He was moved from the spot, in the hope that he would 

 forget his grief; he was even allowed more liberty; but 

 nought availed, and he literally pined away till he died. 



Their swiftness is proverbial; to run like an Ostrich 

 is, in its own country, the same as to say in ours, to run 

 like a greyhound. When roused from the desert, with 

 their long legs and huge strides, they scour away beyond 

 a horseman's speed, with their short wings expanded to 

 balance them, Vain would be the hope to catch them 

 at first setting off, for, in a few minutes, they are out 

 of sight. The persevering hunter, however, keeps on 

 a steady course, sparing his horse, till he can again see 

 his game at a distance, when off it runs once more, and 

 thus, at length, by over-exertion, wears itself out, its 

 joints becoming stiffer after every run, till finally the 

 horseman approaches near enough to shoot it, 



In Morocco, the Arabs adopt another method. 

 Mounted on swift desert horses, called heiries, they set 



