BLACK OSTRICH, 
425 
colour. The female differs in having those fea- 
thers brown that are black in the male. 
Ostriches inhabit the sandy and burning deserts 
of Africa and Asia ; they are oftentimes found in 
large flocks, and commit great ravages amongst 
corn-fields in the interior of the country about the 
Cape of Good Hope, where they are extremely 
numerous, as they are also in the neighbouring 
islands. 
The Ostrich is one of the few polygamous birds 
found in a state of nature, one male being generally 
seen with two or three, and frequently with five 
females ; it has been commonly believed that the 
female, after depositing her eggs in the sand, and 
there covering them up, trusts them to be hatched 
by the heat of the climate, and leaves the young 
ones to shift for themselves ; but, however, it has 
been ascertained by recent observations, that no 
bird has a stronger affection for her offspring than 
this, and that none watches her eggs with greater 
assiduity, as she also does the young when newly 
excluded, they not being able to walk for several 
days, during which time they are regularly sup- 
plied with grass and water by the old birds, who 
likewise defend them from harm, and will even 
encounter every danger in their defence. The 
females which are united to one male deposit all 
their eggs in the same place, to the number of ten 
or twelve each ; these they hatch all together, the 
male also taking his turn of sitting on them : as 
many as sixty or seventy eggs have been observed 
