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NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [14:1— Jan., 1918 



The life history of the Ostrich 

 becomes real; when the indi- 

 vidual child can hold the heavy 

 egg containing about the con- 

 tents of three and a half dozens 

 of hens' eggs; when he can see 

 the growing chick breaking the 

 shell in the incubator; when 

 he can watch the ostriches from 

 the one day old baby to adult 

 birds over forty years of age. 



Here begins one of the studies 

 that will be carried through the 

 day's lesson — that "of protec- 

 tive coloring. It is nowhere 

 shown more plainly than in the 

 down on the chick's back. This 

 resembles a tuft of dried grass, 

 rendering the maternally un- 

 protected young ostriches al- 

 most unperceivable to enemies. 

 In the adult, too, as the female 

 sits on her eggs during the 

 cooler hours of the day, the 

 drab blends with the coloring 

 of her desert surroundings; 

 while the black plumage of the male, incubating at night is his 

 protection. 



Not only the habits of eating, fighting and nesting, but the com- 

 mercial value of the bird is considered. The child learns why 

 there is a difference between wearing bird wings and ostrich 

 plumes on a hat. He sees the stubs of the quills, where the wing 

 plumes have been cut shortly before moulting time — never pulled, 

 and thus injuring the bird. 



The attendant rides astride and drives a mature bird, showing 

 the great strength of the legs for running, since the wings are 

 undeveloped for flight. 



It is a draw which is the more fascinating to the children, the 

 Ostrich or the Alligator Farms. In the latter the reptiles are com- 

 pared with the big birds. Here is another life history study, from 



The male ostrich and nest in sand 

 Alligators sunning themselves 



