THE OSTRICH. 47 



It lias been commonly reported that the female 

 deposits them in the sand, and, covering them 

 up, leaves them to be hatched by the heat of the 

 climate, and then permits the young to shift for 

 themselves. Very little of this however is true : 

 no bird has a stronger affection for her young 

 than the ostrich, nor none watches her eggs with 

 greater assiduity. It happens, indeed, in those 

 hot climates, that there is less necessity for the 

 continual incubation of the female, and she more 

 frequently leaves her eggs, which are in no risk 

 of being chilled by the weather : but though she 

 sometimes forsakes them by day, she always care- 

 fully broods over them by night; and Kolben, 

 who has seen great numbers of them at the Cape 

 of Good Hope, affirms that they sit on their eggs 

 like other birds, and that the male and female 

 take this office by turns, as he had frequent op- 

 portunities of observing. Nor is it more true 

 what is said of their forsaking their young after 

 they are excluded the shell. On the contrary, 

 the young ones are not even able to walk for 

 several days after they are hatched. During this 

 time the old ones are very assiduous in supplying 

 them with grass, and very careful to defend them 

 from danger ; nay, they encounter every danger 

 in their defence. It was a way of taking them 

 among the ancients, to plant a number of sharp 

 stakes round the ostrich's nest in her absence, 

 upon which she pierced herself at her return. 

 The young, when brought forth, are of an ash 

 colour the first year, and are covered with feathers 

 all over. But in time these feathers drop, and 



58 



