OSTRICHES 165 



the southern Struthio australis, characterised by the pinky red bare parts, and the 

 Sudan S. camelus and the Somali S. molybdophanes in which they are leaden blue, 

 the eggs of the two latter being smooth, while those of the former are pitted. 

 The Somali bird ranges over northern Africa, and over Syria, Arabia, and 

 Mesopotamia, where it has already become rare. The southern bird, on the other 

 hand, is exclusively African, ranging southwards to the Cape, although exterminated 

 in many districts where it was formerly abundant. Essentially inhabitants of open 

 sandy country, ostriches in the south used to associate with the herds of gnus and 

 zebras, and everywhere rival or outstrip even the swiftest of antelopes in point of 

 speed. As is well known, these birds are able to go without water for long periods 

 and never travel far to slake their thirst, although they seem always glad to drink and 

 bathe when water happens to be near, and have often been noticed on the coast in the 

 hot season standing up to their throats in the sea. Young birds are said to be mute, 

 but the adult cocks utter a loud call, which has been compared to both the roaring of a 

 lion and the lowing of an ox, and is generally heard in the early morning. Ostriches 

 are generally regarded as polygamous ; and it is usually stated that a number of 

 hens lay their eggs in one nest formed in a hollow scooped out in the ground by 

 a single male, but this is denied by a recent writer. A nest may contain as many 

 as twenty eggs, a number of which are never hatched, but appear to be laid merely 

 to serve as food for the young birds. In the cooler districts, where the sun cannot 

 perform the process of incubation, the cock sits on the eggs throughout the night, 

 only leaving them for a short period in search of food, but in the hotter regions 

 they are merely covered with sand and left to hatch by themselves. According 

 to an observer in South Africa, the old story of the ostrich hiding its head in the 

 sand in order to escape from enemies has a basis of fact. It is well known that 

 ostrich-chicks, like young thicknees, endeavour, when alarmed, to escape detection 

 by lying flat on the ground, with the head and neck stretched out straight in front, 

 where their mottled black and brown colouring causes them to harmonise in a 

 marvellous degree with their surroundings. When approached and picked up, the 

 crouching chicks will be found quite limp and motionless, and will not recover for 

 some time, so that it seems we have to do with a true case of the death-feigning 

 instinct. Adult ostriches, on the other hand, when danger approaches, usually seek 

 safety in flight. Instances are, however, known where full-grown ostriches, instead 

 of starting to run, have suddenly fallen to the ground, with outstretched head and 

 neck, in a condition of apparent collapse. The sudden appearance of an enemy, 

 as a man coming from the top of a kopje or from behind an ant-hill, is generally 

 the inducing cause of such sudden collapses. In one instance, when an intruder 

 came suddenly over a slight rise in open country, three ostriches about 400 yards 

 distant suddenly dropped like stones, when they were almost indistinguishable 

 among the surrounding ant-mounds. It is suggested that cases like these are to 

 be attributed to a retention of the death-feigning instinct of the chick, which is 

 generally in abeyance owing to the superior chance of safety the adult bird pos- 

 sesses in flight. Probably this occasional reappearance of the death-feigning instinct 

 in the adult has given rise to the well-known, but generally discredited, story. 

 Ostriches, it appears from the observations of the same naturalist, are in the habit 

 of running off suddenly with a peculiar whirling movement, sometimes one way, 



