34 HISTORY OF 



greater assiduity. It happens, indeed, in those hot climates, 

 that there is less necessity for the continual incubation of the 

 female ; and she more fiequently leaves her eggs, which are in 

 no fear of being chilled by the weather : but though she some- 

 times forsakes them by 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 that they sit on their 

 eggs like other birds, and that the male and female take this 

 office by turns, as he had frequent opportunities of observing. 

 Nor is it more true what is said of their forsaldng 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 num- 

 ber 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 different and more be- 

 coming plumage. 



The beauty of a part of this plumage, particularly the long 

 feathers that compose the wings and tail, is the chief reason that 

 man has been so active in pursuing this harmless bird to its de- 

 serts, and hunting it with no small degree of expense and labour. 

 The ancients used those plumes in their helmets j the ladies of 

 the East make them an ornament in their dress ; and, among us, 

 our undertakers and our fine gentlemen still make use of them 

 to decorate their hearses and their hats. Those feathers which 

 are plucked from the animal while alive, are much more valued 

 than those taken when dead ; the latter being dry, light, and 

 subject to be worm-eaten. 



Beside the value of their plumage, some of the savage nations 

 of Africa hunt them also for their flesh, which they consider as 

 a dainty. They sometimes also breed these birds tame, to tat 

 the young ones, of which the female is said to be the greatest 

 delicacy. Some nations have obtained the name of Strutho- 

 phagi, or ostrich-eaters, from their peculiar fondness for this 

 food J and even the Romans themselves were not averse to it. 



