288 
OSTRICH. 
Ons) Ree)! Gaara 
Genius! MEX Orsi a Talk C-H. 
Struthio Camelus, Zxd. Orn. ii. p. 663. 1. 
Black Oftrich, Gen. Syx. v..p, 6. 
DE. Sparrman* is of opinion that the male and female Oftrich fit 
upon and hatch the eggs by turns; for in one of his journies, he 
frightened a male from a neft, which he fond made only onthe 
bare fand, on which the eggs lay fcattered and loofe; thefe were 
eleven in number, from another fourteen were brought to him, and 
feveral left behind, from whence he concludes, that from fixteen to 
twenty may be the ufual quantity. Thefe circumftances happened in 
December. 
Thunberg + affirms, that a male Offrich makes a neft with three or 
four fernales, which together lay twenty or thirty eggs, on which they 
fit by turns, in a hole made with their feet in the fand, and that if 
any one take away the eggs, never lay again in the fame place; and 
if the eggs are difturbed only, they break them to pieces with their 
feet. Thefe birds are very deftructive to the farmers, doing much 
damage to the carn, as they come in flocks to eat the ears of the 
wheat, fo that nothing but the bare fkin itfelf is left behind. The 
ficth is far from good, yet the Hotzentots eat it; but the eggs are re- 
lifhed both by the colonifts and others, though not efteemed fo good 
as hens eggs. 
Dr. Sparrman obferves, that the fhell weighs eleven ounces, is fix 
inches and a half deep, and holds five pints and a quarter, liquid 
meafure; the weight of the frefh egg does not greatly exceed this. 
* Vy, ii. p. 120, & feq. 4 Trav. Vo ii. pps 10. 53. 142. 
Thefe 
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