THE OSTRICH. 



21 



and the make of the parts in both sexes seems 

 to confirm the report. It is probable also they 

 copulate, like other birds, by compression ; 

 and they lay very large eggs, some of them 

 being above five inches in diameter, and weigh- 

 ing above fifteen pounds. These eggs have a 

 very hard shell, somewhat resembling those of 

 (he crocodile, except that those of the latter 

 are less and rounder. 1 



The season for laying depends on the climate 

 where the animal is bred. In the northern 

 parts of Africa, this season is about the begin- 

 ning of July : in the south, it is about the latter 

 end of December. These birds are very pro- 

 lific, and lay generally from forty to fifty eggs 

 at one clutch. It has 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, and 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 fear of being chilled by the weather ; 

 but though she sometimes forsakes them by 



1 The male ostrich of South Africa (says the late Mr 

 Thomas Pringle) at the time of breeding usually associ- 

 ates to himself from two to six females. The hens lay 

 all their eggs together in one nest; the nest being merely 

 a shallow cavity scraped iu the ground, of such dimen- 

 sions as to be conveniently covered by one of these gi- 

 gantic birds in incubation. A most ingenious device is 

 employed to save space, and give at the same time to all 

 the eggs their due share of warmth. The eggs are made 

 to stand each with the narrow end on the bottom of the 

 nest and the broad end upwards ; and the earth which 

 has been scraped out to form the cavity is employed to 

 confine the outer circle, and keep the whole in the proper 

 position. The hens relieve each other in the office of 

 incubation during the day, and the male takes his turn 

 at night, when his superior strength is required to pro- 

 tect the eggs or the new-fledged young from the jackalls, 

 tiger-cats, and other enemies. Some of these animals, it is 

 said, are not unfrequently found lying dead near the nest, 

 destroyed by a stroke from the foot of this powerful bird. 



As many as sixty e'ggs are sometimes found in and 

 around an ostrich nest ; but a smaller number is more 

 common ; and incubation is occasionally performed by a 

 single pair of ostriches. Each female lays from twelve 

 to sixteen eggs. They continue to lay during incuba- 

 tion, and even after the young brood are hatched, the 

 supernumerary eggs are not placed in the nest, but around 

 it, being designed to assist in the nourishment of the 

 young birds, which, though as large as a pullet when 

 first hatched, are probably unable at once to digest the 

 hard and acrid food on which the old ones subsist. The 

 period of incubation is from thirty-six to forty days. In 

 the middle of the day the nest is occasionally left by all 

 the birds, the heat of the sun being then sufficient to 

 keep the eggs at the proper temperature. 



An ostrich egg is considered as equal in its contents 

 to twenty-four of the domestic hen. When taken fresh 

 Irom the nest, as those were which we found near Rhin- 

 oceros Fountain, they are very palatable, and are whole- 



day, she always carefully broods over them 

 by night ; and Kolben, who has seen great 

 numbers of them at the Cape of Good Hope, 

 affirms (.hat they sit on their eggs like other 

 birds, and that the male and female take this 

 office by turns, as he had frequent opportuni- 

 ties 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 tor 

 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 en- 

 counter 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 

 those parts which are covered assume a differ- 

 ent and more becoming plumage. 



The beauty of a part of this plumage, par- 

 ticularly the long leathers that compose the 

 wings and tail,* is the chief reason that man 

 has been so active in pursuing this harmless 

 bird to its deserts, and hunting it with no 



some though somewhat heavy food. The best mode of 

 cooking them is that practised by the Hottentots, and 

 which we adopted under their tuition, namely, to place one 

 end of the egg in the hot ashes, and making a small ori- 

 fice in the other, keep stirring the contents with a bit of 

 stick till they are sufficiently roasted ; and then with a 

 seasoning of salt and pepper you have a very nice ome- 

 lade. 



The ostrich of South Africa is a prudent and wary 

 animal, and displays little of that stupidity ascribed to 

 this bird by some naturalists. On the borders of the 

 Cape Colony, at least, where it is eagerly pursued for 

 the sake of its valuable plumage, the ostrich displays no 

 want of sagacity in providing for its own safety or the 

 security of its oHspring. It adopts every possible pre- 

 caution to conceal the place of its nest; and uniformly 

 abandons it, after destroying the eggs, if it perceives that 

 the eggs have been disturbed or the footsteps of man are 

 discovered near it. In relieving each other in hatching, 

 the birds are said to be careful not to be seen together at 

 the nest, and are never observed to approach it in a 

 direct line. 



The food of the ostrich consists of the tops of the vari- 

 ous shrubby plants which even the most arid parts of 

 South Africa produce in abundance. This bird is so 

 easily satisfied in regard to water that he is constantly 

 to be found in the most parched and desolate tracts which 

 even the antelopes and the beasts of prey have deserted. 

 His cry at a distance so much resembles that of the lion, 

 that even the Hottentots are said to be sometimes de- 

 ceived by it. 



When not hatching they are frequently seen in troops 

 of thirty or forty together, or amicably associated with 

 herds of zebras or quaggas, their fellow-tenants of the 

 wilderness. If caught young the ostrich is easily tamed ; 

 but it does not appear that any attempt has been made 

 to apply his great strength and swiftness to any purpose 

 of practical utility. 



8 II is generally believed that the fine feathers of the 



