204 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



tliem, he bends back his neck, shuts his bill, and by spasmodic movements, 

 produced at his will, in his whole body, he forces the air from his lungs, 

 his gullet swells to an extraordinary size, and then we hear three sorts of 

 guttural thunder, the second of which is several notes higher than the first, 

 and the third much deeper, and is prolonged and gradually extinguished. 

 This crowing is frequently repeated It is a savage sound, and has some 

 analogy with the roar of the lion. It is heard day and night, chiefly in 

 the morning. The rut is manifested by his performing a kind of dance, by 

 crouching before the female upon his hams, and balancing himself in a tot- 

 tering manner some eight or ten minutes, while his head strikes, with the 

 back part of it, his body on both sides and in front of his wings, which 

 shake feverishly, and his whole body trembles, while from his gullet we 

 hear a kind of cooing, dull and shaky, and his whole system seems to be in 

 a hysterical delirium These symptoms precede his treading, which he 

 does often in a day, principally in the morning, and during the tread we 

 hear a deep rumbliiig sound, indicating the violence of his passion. When 

 laying time comes, they form a hollow in the ground, both working at it. 

 They throw earth out, the wings are agitated — they will make a hollow in 

 the hardest ground. The place w^here they did it, in their park, was full 

 of stones, gravel, &c., in a sort of mortar. Stones of consideraV)le size were 

 thrown out by them. The hollow was made about three feet and an half 

 in diameter. They had made many such hollows without choosing to lay 

 in them. Notwithstanding all this preparation, the eggs were never laid 

 in any of the hollows, but any where else, hap-hazard. In December 1856, 

 I put a couple into a larger and more retired park, about an acre, half of 

 it covered with trees and richly grown plants ; the other side sheltered 

 from the west by a high building, along which they were sheltered from 

 wind and rain in winter. In January they dug a nest in the thick woods, 

 exactly where they were thickest, the ground being an ochrey clay. About 

 the 15th, the laying began, the two first eggs being laid in the park hap- 

 hazard, but afterwards she deposited them in the nest. She thus laid a 

 dozen, and in the fore part of March began to sit. A week after we had 

 heavy rains, the water got into the nest and the eggs were in a sort of 

 mortar — the poor birds abandoned the nest. I knew that they laid twice a 

 year. I ordered a large hillock of sand to be made where the hole was and 

 surrounded it at a distance with mats so that persons could not see it. 

 Towards the middle of May I was gratified by seeing the ostriches digging 

 a new nest on the top of this sand hill, and soon the laying began. About 

 the last of June they began to guard the nest some hours every day, and 

 after July 2d, began to sit regularly. On the 2d of September, I first saw 

 a little ostrich walking about the outside of the nest ; four days after, they 

 ceased to sit, and busied themselves with their new horn chick ! I after- 

 wards broke the remaining eggs and found three dead chicks in them, two 

 eggs perfectly unchanged, and two rotten. The young one was a male and 

 is now as large as its parents, that is, from 2d September 1857 to Ju7ie 

 1858. 



