140 THE OSTRICH. 



a female from a nest containing thirty-eight eggs of unequal 

 size, and having thirteen others scattered around it, he 

 concealed himself at a short distance, and observed, during 

 the day, no less than four females successively taking part 

 in the maternal office. Towards the close of the evening, 

 a male also took his share of the duty ; and v Le Vaillant 

 remarks, that he has frequently had opportunities of veri- 

 fying the fact, that the male bird sits as well as the female. 

 In this case it would appear probable that several females 

 had deposited their eggs in one common nest. The extra- 

 ordinary number of eggs said to have been sometimes 

 found, may also perhaps be accounted for by the fondness 

 of the natives for these delicacies, which they abstract from 

 the nest by means of a long stick, cautiously avoiding to 

 introduce their hands, which, they affirm, would infallibly 

 drive the bird to abandon the place. The Ostrich naturally 

 continues laying, in order to complete her usual number : 

 and in this way forty or fifty eggs may actually have been 

 obtained from a single female. 



Within the torrid zone the eggs are merely laid in the 

 warm sand, the female sometimes sitting upon them during 

 the night ; but, in general, the rays of the sun are suffi- 

 ciently powerful to hatch them, without any assistance on 

 her part. She does not, however, as has been commonly 

 stated, neglect her offspring, but watches over them with 

 as much solicitude as any other bird, hovering around the 

 spot in which they are deposited, and, if surprised in her 

 occupation, making a short circuit, and constantly returning 

 to the object of her care. This doubling kind of flight is 

 regarded by the hunters as a certain sign of the vicinity of 

 her eggs, as at all other times the Ostriches pursue, for a 

 time at least, a direct and straightforward course. In the 

 more temperate regions, and especially in the neighborhood 

 of the Cape, the Ostrich sits like other birds, always choos- 

 ing the most retired and solitary places. Her nest consists 

 merely of a pit of about three feet in diameter, dug in the 



