HABITS OF THE OSTRICH. 117 



nest varies from twenty to forty, and even to fifty ; 

 and according to Azara, sometimes to seventy or 

 eighty. Now although it is most probable, from 

 the number of eggs found in one district being so 

 extraordinarily great in proportion to the parent 

 birds, and likewise from the state of the ovarium 

 of the hen, that she may in the course of the season 

 lay a large number, yet the time required must be 

 very long. Azara states,* that a female in a state 

 of domestication laid seventeen eggs, each at the 

 interval of three days one from another. If the 

 hen was obliged to hatch her own eggs, before the 

 last was laid the first probably would be addled ; 

 but if each laid a few eggs at successive periods, 

 in different nests, and several hens, as is stated to 

 be the case, combined together, then the eggs in 

 one collection would be nearly of the same age. 

 If the number of eggs in one of these nests is, as I 

 believe, not gi'eater oil an average than the number 

 laid by one female in the season, then there must 

 be as many nests as females, and each cock bird 

 will have its fair share of the labour of incubation; 

 and that during a period when the females probably 

 could not sit, from not having finished laying.t I 

 have before mentioned the great numbers of huachos 

 or deserted eggs, so that in one day's hunting twen- 

 ty were found in this state. It appears odd that so 

 many should be wasted. Does it not arise from 

 the difficulty of several females associating togeth- 

 er, and finding a male ready to undertake the oflfice 

 of incubation 1 It is evident that there must at first 

 be some degree of association between at least two 



* Azara, vol. iv., p. 173. 



t Lichtenstein, however, asserts (Travels, vol. ii., p. 25) that 

 the hens begin sitting when they have laid ten or twelve eggs ; 

 and ihat they continue laying, I presume, in another nest. This 

 appears to me very improbable. He asserts that four or five hens 

 associate for incubation with ono cock, who sits only at night. 



