AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 203 



and October. The male crows (it may be called) — the skin of his neck and 

 thighs turn bright red, his gullet swells, his neck bends back, and sounds 

 come from the bottom of his breast, deep, rough, contracted and strange, 

 forming a sort of guttural thunder. They made several nests by making a 

 hole in the hard earth full of stones and gravel — a nest of about three and 

 a half feet in diameter. In these hollows, however, they never laid eggs, 

 but any where else, hap-hazard. Heavy rains made a sort of mortar in the 

 nests — the birds abandoned it — sand was heaped in one of the nests and 

 they made a hollow in that. About the second of July they began to sit 

 regularly — guarding it for hours. On the second of September the first 

 young ostrich came out of the nest, walking around it. In four days more 

 they quit the nest to take care of this new born chick, which was a male, 

 and is now (June, 1858,) as large as its parents — that is, from September, 

 1857 — nine months. All sorts of food was offered by the parents, but sal- 

 ads were preferred to all other food. The female lays about fifty eggs a 

 year, one of which contains as much as twenty-four Spanish hen's eggs — 

 they are good to eat — not quite so delicate as hen's eggs. Two points are 

 settled : 1st. The ostrich bears domestication and reproduces. 2d. Never 

 abandons its nest, and is monogamous, 



[Societe Imperiale Zoologique D'Accliraatation. Paris, Juillet, 1858.] 



THE OSTRICH. 



3y Mr. Hardy, Director General of the Central Nursery of the Gover7i- 

 7nent at Ham?na, near Algiers. 



For about a dozen years past, ostriches have been kept here in a rather 

 narrow inclosure. The flock was gathered from various persons of the 

 army and of civil government. There were many more males than females 

 in it, and these were continually fighting each other. The females did not 

 lay any eggs, whether because they were too young or because the place 

 did not suit them. 



This flock became reduced by sending some as presents to the Museum 

 of Natural History of Paris, to the Zoological Gardens of Marseilles and 

 of Antwerp. Only two males and two females were retained. In 1852 

 these were put into a circular inclosure in the middle of one of the main 

 walks of the nursery ; this space was about fifty feet in diameter ; around 

 it is a shed, but the ostriches never enter it even to eat or sleep, but always 

 stay out, no matter how bad the weather may be. They appeared to be 

 mated, but the males were always fighting, until at last one conquered the 

 other, and never gave him one moment's respite whether he was eating or 

 loving. However, the females began to lay pretty regularly. They always 

 began to lay in about the middle of January, and left off" in the latter half 

 of March. Sometimes they laid again in September and October. The 

 moment of laying was always preceded by the rutting of the male, with 

 peculiar action. The skin of his neck and thighs (which have no feathers) 

 turn bright red ; he crows or sings with sounds from the bottom of his 

 breast and gullet ; sounds rough, concentrated and strange. To produce 



