xii. THE OSTRICH. 179 



nest in the morning when her turn for incubation has 

 come. In wide circles, and apparently in the most 

 unconcerned manner, she will feed round the nest, never 

 once looking towards it, but gradually approaching nearer 

 and nearer to it, by diminishing each circle as she walks 

 round, until at length her perambulations have brought 

 her to within a yard or so of the nest, when the birds will 

 rapidly change places, the male walking swiftly away and 

 not remaining in the vicinity of the nest during the day. 

 The wonderful rapidity with which the change is effected 

 is perfectly astonishing, and it is impossible to see the 

 exact manner in which it is done, so swiftly do they 

 change places. 



The young of the ostrich, Mrs. Barber tells us, have 

 similar habits to those of the pheasant and partridge in 

 that on the approach of an enemy they scatter and hide 

 in the long grasses, where they are left by the parent 

 birds until such time as the danger is over. The rounded 

 form and mottled coat of the young ostrich, as it lies 

 hidden and motionless in the grass, is a capital imitation 

 of the small black ant heaps, which are by no means 

 uncommon in the grassy localities, or on the plains where 

 these birds have their nests. 



The little ones, we are told by another observer, some- 

 times come into the world under a certain amount of risk, 

 for the cock-bird often becomes impatient towards the end 

 of the period of incubation, which lasts about six weeks 

 and has been observed to lean with his chest upon an egg, 

 crack it, and then take up with his beak the membrane 

 inside the egg, and shake it violently until the young bird 

 dropped out, when he would swallow the membrane, and 

 repeat the operation on another. This is not the usual mode 

 among birds of bringing their chicks into the world, but 

 the ostrich does not pretend to conform to ordinary rules. 



As I have before hinted, the African ostrich does not 



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