REPRODUCTION OF THE OSTRICH IN EUROPE. 47 
rendered to the poor bird; and, although in general very quarrelsome 
during the breeding season, it suffered itself to be handled with great 
patience. Whilst its sickness lasted, it abstained from all food ; but 
at the end of three weeks, it became perfectly restored to health, and 
sought its companion with renewed ardour. 
The first egg was laid on the 1ith of May, and, afterwards, the 
laying went on regularly, at the rate of an egg every other day, up 
to the 3lst. On that day, after having deposited the eleventh egg, 
the female sat for a couple of hours. The male then replaced her, 
but only up to the night. 
On the Ist of June, the female sat from 8 a.m., to 3 p.m. The 
male then took her place, and continued to sit uninterruptedly until 
10 a.m. on the 2nd. From this latter to the 3rd, the same course 
was followed. 
On the 3rd, the nest received a twelfth egg; a thirteenth, on the 
4th ; and a fourteenth on the 5th—at which date the laying ceased. 
Up to the 23rd of June, the incubation continued in the manner 
already indicated, the female sitting five hours, from 10 a.m. to3 Pp. M., 
and the male continuing the incubation through a long sitting of 
nineteen hours, or until 10 o’clock the next morning. 
Since the 14th of June, the temperature of the air had experienced 
several abrupt changes. Almost every day, a storm, accompanied 
by wind and rain, broke over the park. On the 17th there was a 
complete hurricane, with claps of thunder. At the first premonitory 
signs of this tempest, the female placed herself beside the male to 
assist him in covering the eggs, and, contrary to her usual custom, 
she remained on the nest until eight o’clock the next morning. As 
to the male bird, he did not quit his post before three in the afternoon : 
so that he remained without taking nourishment for twenty-four hours. 
The weather again cleared up. On the 23rd of June, about three 
o’clock in the morning, M. Desmeure, who has charge of my establish- 
ment, was attracted by a peculiar little cry, which he knew, by the 
experience of the past year, to signalize the hatching of a young bird. 
The little-one was already running around its male parent, but the 
latter did not quit the nest during the entire day. M. Desmeure 
having observed the young bird to wander to some distance, and 
become entangled in a bush, made up his mind to enter the park. 
He replaced the “little stranger ” under the wing of the male ostrich, 
and took advantage of the occasion to put within its reach a sufficient 
