226 THE OSTBICH. 



hen-eggs. Besides the eggs sat upon, others are placed 

 outside of the nest, often in little cavities dug out 

 specially. 



What is their destination ? It is a discovery of M. 

 Vaillant, to whom we owe the first exact ideas we have 

 had as to the habits of the ostrich. 



A female had got up about twenty yards from him : 

 " Suspecting that it was a sitter, I hastened to reach 

 the place from which sh? had risen, and I found eleven 

 eggs, still warm, and four others dispersed at two or 

 three feet from the nest. I called my companions, who 

 came up at once. I broke one of the eggs, and found 

 a young one already formed, the size of a chicken, 

 ready to come out of its shell. I supposed all the eggs 

 were rotten ; my people thought very differently : each 

 one hastened to fall on the nest ; but Amirdo took 

 possession of four others, desiring to give me a feast, 

 and assuring me that I should find them excellent. It 

 was then I learnt from this savage that which the 

 Hottentots themselves are ignorant of, and which is not 

 known to naturalists, since no one that I am aware of 

 has spoken of it, and which I have had more than one 

 opportunity of verifying, viz., that the ostrich always 

 places within reach of the nest a certain number of 

 eggs proportioned to those which she destines for in- 

 cubation. These eggs not being sat upon are preserved 

 fresh for a long time, and the provident instinct of the 



