1863.] ON THE INCUBATION OF STRTJTHIOUS BIRDS. 233 



Pomatorhinus rubecula. Rare. 

 Cindoramphns cruralis. 

 Artamus leucopijyialis, 



• cinereus. Rare. 



Colluricincla brunnea. 



Petroica bicolor. 



Pardalotus rubricatus. Extremely rare; the second specimen seen. 



Graucalus melanops. 



Tropidorhynchus argenteiceps. 



Geopeliu cuneata. 



hwneralis. 



Erythrogonys cinctus. 



C. Notes on the Method of Incubation among the Birds 

 IN THE Order Struthiones. By P. L. Sclater, M.A., 

 Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. 



The phenomena of reproduction in the two families Struthiotiidce 

 and ApterygidcB, which compose the order Struthiones, as far as we 

 are acquainted with them, appear to be very distinct. In the Strii- 

 thionidce the females deposit numerous eggs. These are collected 

 together by the male, who takes the whole duty of incubation upon 

 himself, and likewise tends and looks after the young birds when 

 hatched. In the ApterygidcB it would appear that the female de- 

 posits but one single egg, and sits upon it herself. This I judge to 

 be the case from the following evidence, which is all I have been able 

 to collect upon the subject : — 



1. The Ostrich {Struthio camelus). 



I shall not repeat the numerous stories that are universally current 

 respecting the reproduction of the Ostrich. It is generally supposed 

 to lay its eggs in the desert, and to leave them to be hatched by the 

 heat of the sun ; and this belief appears to have been current ever 

 since the Book of Job (one of the earliest of the Holy Scriptures) 

 ■was written. But we know now with certainty, from the observa- 

 tions* of M. Noel Suchet, Director of the Zoological Gardens at 

 Marseilles, that the normal habits of the Ostrich on this point do not 

 differ materially from those of its allies of the same family. In 

 March 1861 a pair of Ostriches were placed in a quiet enclosure near 

 Marseilles for the purpose of inducing them to breed. Fifteen eggs 

 were deposited by the female, in an excavation made in the sand by 

 the two birds working alternately, at intervals of two days each, the 

 number being complete on April 20th. The male then took up his 

 position on the eggs, and the young birds were hatched on the 3rd 

 of June, being forty-five days after incubation had commenced. 

 This, however, would appear to have been before the expiration of 

 the usual period of incubation, which, according to the observations 

 of M. Hardy of Algiers, lasts usually from fifty-six to sixty days. 



* See Rev. Zool. 1861, !>. 467, and Bull. Soc. Accl. 1861, p. 142. 



