430 CLASS AVES. 



shut up, and with as much noise and force as a hammer would 

 have made. 



The ostriches are prone to venery, and couple very fre- 

 quently. Though heavy birds are, in general, polygamous, 

 Thevenot assures us that the ostrich never has more than one 

 female. Sparman also adopts this opinion, but merely on the 

 testimony of the Hottentots, and on the supposition of the 

 necessity of incubation. On the other hand, the Caffres in- 

 formed Thunberg that the male made its nest with three or 

 four females at once, which laid altogether twenty or thirty 

 eggs, and hatched them in turn. The same fact was simi- 

 larly reported to our countryman, Mr. Barrow. Levaillant 

 argues in favour of the monogamy of these birds, and states 

 that, in general, he found no more than ten eggs in their nests. 

 Yet this traveller states a fact to which he was an eye-witness, 

 and which, in spite of the interpretation which he gives it, 

 appears to favour an opinion opposite to his own. 



A female ostrich, having risen from a nest composed of 

 thirty-eight eggs, of unequal size, besides thirteen others, 

 which were placed a little farther on, each in a small cavity, 

 Levaillant concealed himself at some distance, in a bush, from 

 which, during the day, he beheld four females come suc- 

 cessively to the nest, and rise from it in turns. One of these 

 females remained during a quarter of an hour, seated, or 

 rather bent down upon, the eggs, although a new comer had 

 placed herself beside her. This made our naturalist conclude 

 that these birds agreed, as it were, by a mutual understanding, 

 to hatch in couples, or more, at times, especially during the cool 

 and rainy nights, for the advantage of greater T^armth. But 

 this supposition accords very little with the system of exclu- 

 sive monogamy. In fact, the different female ostriches must 

 have been fecundated before their laying, and the account of 

 the traveller proves this, because the young ones were on the 

 point of being excluded. Moreover, Levaillant saw but one 



