576 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



Note 48, p. 191. — Dance of Ostrich. 



A vivid picture of the Ostrich dance will be found in Prof. Lloyd 

 Morgan's Animal Sketches (1892). 



Note 49, p. \m.— Ostrich. 



Prof. Newton, in his Dictionary of Birds, notes that Ostriches, though 

 sometimes assembling in troops of 30-50, commonly live in companies of 

 four or five — one cock and the rest hens. This is especially true at the 

 breeding season. All the hens lay together ; the cock broods during the 

 night ; the hens take turns during the day, more, it would seem, to guard 

 their common treasure from jackals and small beasts of prey than directly 

 to forward the process of hatching, for that is often left wholly to the sun. 

 Some thirty eggs are laid in the nest, and round it are scattered perhaps 

 as many more, which are said to be used as food for the newly-hatched 

 chicks. 



Compare works cited in that article : M. H. K. Lichtenstein, Reise im 

 siidlichen Africa (Berlin, 1812); Pursch and Hartlaub, Viigel Ost Afrikas; 

 De Mosenthal and Harting, Ostrich and Ostrich Farming ; also, Mrs. 

 Martin, Home Life on an Ostrich Farm. 



Note 50, p. 193. — Primaries and Secondaries. 



Primary feathers are the longer quill-feathers of the wing, and are 

 borne by the ' hand ' of the bird ; the secondaries are the quill-feathers 

 higher up, borne by the ulna of the arm. 



THE PRIMEVAL POEESTS OP CENTRAL APRICA. 



Note 51, p. 220.—Hornbills. 



Members of the family Bucerotidae, including some 60 species whose 

 generic arrangement is uncertain. Of their habits Prof. Newton says: 

 " They breed in holes of trees, laying large white eggs, and when the hen 

 begins to sit, the cock plasters up the entrance with mud or clay, leaving 

 only a small window, through which she receives the food he brings her 

 during her voluntary imprisonment". He notes Mr. Bartlett's discovery, 

 confirmed by others, that the hornbills cast out at intervals the lining of 

 their gizzard in the form of a bag, which is filled with the fruit that the 

 bird has been eating, and asks whether " these castings are' really intended 

 to form the hen-bird's food during her confinement "- 



Note 52, p. 221. — Umber- or Umhre-hird. 



This bird, whose name refers to the earthy -brown colour, is the 

 Hammer-head or Scopus umbretta of ornithologists. Of the nest. Prof. 

 Newton says that "it is occasionally some six feet in diameter, a mass of 

 sticks, roots, grass, and rushes compactly piled together, with a flat-topped 

 roof, the interior being neatly lined with clay, and a hole of entrance and 



