432 CLASS AVES. 



may be generally fixed to one and the same period, in any 

 species, yet the eggs may be broken, or other accidents may 

 occur, to derange the incubation, and oblige the mother to 

 lay a second, and even a third set of eggs. This sufficiently 

 explains the fact of difference of size and age in the young. 



This point, however, is a matter of much less importance 

 than the remark of Levaillant, concerning the eggs which the 

 ostrich places at a little distance from the nest, where they 

 are preserved fresh, to serve for the first nourishment of the 

 young. Bougainville had also made a similar remark, but 

 did not dare to publish it, on account of its singularity. But 

 this fact was much more anciently known in the countries 

 inhabited by the ostrich. The Arabian writer, already 

 quoted, tells us, " It is said that the ostrich divides its eggs 

 into three portions. That it hatches one-third, gives another 

 to its young to eat, and leaves the last portion exposed to the 

 air, that it may rot, and engender worms, which may serve 

 as food for the young when they are excluded." 



This account of the exact division of the eggs, of one por- 

 tion being used for immediate food, and the other left to 

 rot, &c., must of course be attributed to oriental prejudice, 

 and ignorance of natural science. But the recital is suffi- 

 cient to prove the knowledge of a fact since established, but 

 which probably never takes place, except when a second set 

 of eggs is laid. 



In further confirmation of this it may be noticed that the 

 nandu, that bird of America which has most relation with 

 the ostrich, also feeds the young with eggs not hatched. 

 There is a passage of Dobrizoffer, (to whose authority great 

 deference is due, from his known veracity and long residence 

 in Paraguay) to this effect, in his history of the Abipones, an 

 equestrian nation of that country. He says : — " Ova adhuc 

 plena ne in lucem jam editis esca desit a se confracta par.- 

 vulis alendis impendere sclent." 



