LIFE OF A JUVENILE OSTRICH 



Two years ago I was born in southern 

 California. The great Sierra Madre 

 mountains looked over my birth place; 

 those big black hills, a branch of the 

 Sierra Nevadas, those immense moun 

 tains that shut in California, and divide 

 the east of North America from the west, 

 with its dry, sandy sun-scorched plains 

 between the states of New Mexico and 

 Colorado and the sea. Eighteen miles 

 from the peaceful Pacific Ocean, at 

 Pasadena, a small resort for tourists to 

 California, I first saw the light. All of 

 us, for there were fourteen sisters and 

 brothers were laid in a large hole in the 

 ground. I have heard since how this 

 hole was made; my father took a notion 

 one day that there ought to be more 

 ostriches in the world so he began 

 to scrape out the ground with his strong 

 feet and soon made a hole about one 

 foot deep and three feet wide ; the second 

 day he became tired of this work, not 

 that he worked all day, for ostriches 

 are wild birds and do not love work, but 

 every now and then he would scrape 

 out a little; but even of this he became 

 tired and called my mother to help him. 

 They scraped in turns and very soon had 

 a hole in the dry California soil some 

 two feet deep and four feet around ; in 

 that hole we were all born. Not all to 

 gether, but one every other day. I did 

 not see my brothers and sisters born, 

 for we were all in eggs the size of can 

 taloupes. It took a month to lay us all 

 in the nest fifteen of us one every 

 other day. Mother turned us over every 

 day several times, for the hot California 

 sun shines every day and we would fry 

 on one side if left too long and that is 

 why she turned us over. 



Two weeks after I had been laid I 

 was carried away from the nest of my 

 parents to a dark house heated by an 

 oil-lamp, and there I remained, perfectly 

 quiet, for four weeks longer. I grew 



quite fast and before the end of four 

 weeks found my shell getting too small 

 to hold me. There is always a space left 

 in ostrich eggs by nature for little os 

 triches to breathe ; but I grew into that 

 space and soon found I must either 

 burst the shell or smother. So, one day, 

 I gave a great bob with my head against 

 the side of the shell and a small piece 

 about an inch square fell out. I then 

 peeped out on the new world and found 

 about three dozen large eggs just like 

 mine lying close to each other, all kept 

 nice and warm by the oil lamp. We 

 were lying upon trays of zinc and as 

 I looked upon the silent eggs, white and 

 quiet, I thought it looked very much like 

 a graveyard. But the nice warm air 

 was pleasant, although I smelt a smell 

 I never smelt before that which is 

 made by an oil lamp burning low, which 

 all our readers know about. Soon I 

 gave another turn and my shell fell into 

 twenty pieces on the zinc tray. I was 

 free. I was so weak and happy at the 

 joy of getting out of my prison that 

 I fell over and fainted. I was awakened 

 by a man who reached his hand into the 

 incubator, for that was the name of my 

 home, and took me rather roughly away. 

 He placed me in the sunshine on the 

 grass and I. soon found myself getting 

 stronger and became more joyful than 

 ever. I began to eat some little stones 

 that were lying around, for nature has 

 made it so that every little ostrich has 

 to eat stones when he comes out of his 

 shell to get his liver in good working 

 order. After a good meal of very small 

 stones I felt stronger than ever and 

 soon began nibbling the green, young 

 grass. 



About this time a party of strangers 

 came along and stared at us. There 

 were five ladies and a man, and they 

 had come from Missouri. The ladies 

 made very strange remarks about me 



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