PARENTAL INSTINCT OF THE OSTRICH. 313 



puts him to flight. Proud of his victory, the little champion 

 returns to his partner, and flaps triumphantly his gemlike 

 wings. 



The artifices employed by the partridge, the lapwing, the 

 ringplover, the pewit, and numerous other land-birds, to blind 

 the vigilance and divert the attention of those who may come 

 near their little ones, are equally curious. When the sea-lark 

 sees the enemy man or dog approach, it does not await 

 their arrival but advances to meet them. Then suddenly rising 

 with a shrill cry, as if just disturbed from its nest, it flutters 

 along the ground as if crippled, and entices them farther and 

 farther from its young. The dogs, expecting to catch an easy 

 prey, follow the lame bird, which suddenly, however, flies off 

 with lightning speed, and leaves its disappointed pursuers on 

 the beach. 



Calumny has been very busy about the ostrich, accusing it of 

 stupidity and want of parental feeling ; but it is now fully 

 proved that no bird has a stronger affection for its offspring, or 

 watches its nest with a greater assiduity. Contrary to the 

 general opinion, she always broods over her eggs at night, and 

 only leaves them during the hottest part of the day. 



Her instinct in providing food for her young appears to be 

 without parallel, and is thus noticed by Le Vaillant : ' During 

 this day's journey I met with the nest of an ostrich, upon which 

 the female was hatching ; there were three eggs, deposited on 

 the bare ground, lying before her, and she was sitting upon nine 

 others, the young of which were in so advanced a state as to be 

 ready to burst the shell.' This wonderful provision, when we 

 consider how difficult it would be for the brood to find any 

 other suitable food in its sterile haunts, was considered in- 

 credible when first announced as a fact by this well-known 

 traveller ; but subsequent observations have, in this instance as 

 in many others, fully proved Tris veracity. 



To protect her young, the ostrich has recourse to the same 

 artifices which we admire in the plover, endeavouring to divert 

 attention from her nest by feigning lameness or inability to 

 fly ; so that, far from being the cold-hearted and stupid creature 

 she is frequently supposed to be, she in reality affords us a 

 wonderful example of the power of parental affection in rous- 

 ing the intelligence of an animal to higher exertions at the 



