rECULIAIlITIJ]S OF THE OSTRICH. 387 



The instinct of the ostrich in providing food for its young is 

 no less remarkable, for it is now proved that this bird, far 

 from leaving its eggs, like a cold-blooded reptile, to be vivified 

 by the sun, as was formerly supposed, not only hatches them 

 with the greatest care, but even reserves a certain portion of 

 eggs to provide the young with nourishment when they first 

 burst into life : a wonderful provision, when we consider how 

 difficult it would be for the brood to find any other adequate 

 food in its sterile haunts. In Senegal, where the heat is 

 extreme, the ostrich, it is said, sits at night only upon those eggs 

 which are to be rendered fertile, but in extratropical Africa, 

 where the sun has less power, the mother remains constant in 

 her attentions to the eggs both day and night. 



The number of eggs which the ostrich usually sits upon is ten ; 

 but the Hottentots, who are very fond of them, upon discovering 

 a nest, seize fitting opportunities to remove one or two at a time ; 

 this induces the bird to deposit more, and in this manner she 

 has been known, like the domestic hen, to lay between forty and 

 fifty in a season. 



Almost as soon as the chicks of the ostrich (which are about 

 the size of pullets) have escaped from the shell, they are able 

 to walk about and to follow the mother, on whom they are 

 dependent for a long time. And here again we find a wonderful 

 provision of nature in providing the young of the ostrich with a 

 colour and a covering admirably suited to the localities they 

 frequent. The colour is a kind of pepper and salt, agreeing 

 well with the sand and gravel of the plains, which they are 

 in the habit of traversing, so that you have the greatest diffi- 

 culty in discerning the chicks even when crouching under your 

 very eyes. The covering is neither down nor feathers, but a kind 

 of prickly stubble, which no doubt is an excellent protection 



against injury from the gi-avel and the stunted vegetation 



^fcmongst which they dwell. 



^B The ostrich resembles in many respects the quadrupeds, and 

 ^™)articularly the camel, so that it may almost be said to fill up 

 ^fthe chasm which separates the mammalia from the birds, and to 

 ^^orm a connecting link between them» Both the ostrich and 

 the dromedary have warty excrescences on the breast upon 

 which they lean whilst reposing, an almost similarly formed foot, 

 the same muscular neck ; and when we consider that they botli 



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