390 



The Living Animals of the World 



The egg of the ostrich weighs about 3 lbs., and is of delicious flavour. The empty shell, 

 it has been found by experiment, is large enough to hold the contents of eighteen eggs of 

 the common domesticated fowl. It takes about forty minutes to boil an ostrich egg hard. About 

 fifteen eggs represent the clutch. The nest is a mere depression in the sand. The hen sits 

 by day, and her mate by night ; but the eggs are never left, as is sometimes stated, to the 

 heat of the sun, so as to lessen the duties of the parent. Such a course would infallibly destroy 

 the eggs, for the sun's rays, especially at noon, are very powerful. 



The male and female ostrich differ much in coloration. In the former the trunk is clothed 

 in a vestment of richest black, whilst the quills of the wings and tail-feathers are of pure white: 

 they form the much-prized ostrich plumes. The female is much less splendid, being clothed in 

 sober grey. But these colours are not merely ornamental ; they render the male by night and 

 the female by day invisible, owing to the j^erfect harmony they make with their surroundings, 

 thus affording an interesting illustration of protective coloration. 



" All ostriches," says Mr. Cronwright Schreiner, " adults as well as chicks, have a strange 

 habit known as ' waltzing.' When chicks are let out from a kraal in the early morning, they 

 will often start away at a great pace. After running for a few hundred yards they will all stop, 



and, with wings raised, spin round 

 rapidly for some time, often till quite 

 giddy, when a broken leg occasionally 

 occurs. Adult birds, when running 

 in large camps, will often, if the 

 N'eldt is good, do the same, especially 

 if startled in the fresh of the early 

 morning. A troop of birds waltzing, 

 in full plumage, is a remarkably 

 pretty sight. A'icious cocks ' roll ' 

 when challenging to fight, also when 

 wooing the hen. The cock will 

 suddenly bump down on to his ' knees ' 

 . open his wings, making a straight 

 line across his breast, and tlien swing 

 them alternately backwards and 

 forwards ... as if on a pivot, each 

 wing, as it comes forward, being 

 raised, while that going backward is 

 depressed. The neck is lowered until the head is on a level with the back, and the head and 

 neck swing from side to side with the wings, the back of the head striking with a loud 

 click against the ribs, first on the one side and then on the other. The click is produced 

 by the skin of the neck, which then bulges loosely just under the beak and for some distance 

 downwards. While 'rolling,' every feather over the whole body is on end, and the jilumes are 

 open, like a large white fan. At such a time the bird sees very imperfectly, if at all ; in fact, 

 he seems so preoccupied that, if pursued, one may often approach unnoticed. I have walked up 

 to a ' roUing ' cock and seized him by the neck, much to his surprise. Just before rolling, a 

 cock, especially if courting the hen. will often run slowly and daintily on the points of his 

 toes, with neck slightly inflated, upright and rigid, the tail half drooped, and all his body- 

 feathers fluffed up ; the wings raised and expanded, the inside edges touching the sides of the 

 neck for nearly the whole of its length, and the plumes showing seimrately, like an open fan 

 ... on each side of his head. In no other attitude is the splendid beauty of his plumage 

 displayed to such advantage." 



The males are very fierce while guarding their eggs or fighting for mates, and kick with 

 extraordinary violence with their powerful legs. As an example of their fierceness when aroused, 

 Mr. Cronwright Schreiner, who knows much of these birds, relates a story, told him by a 



PI,ol„ h,, W. Had] 



OSTRICHES TIl.N- DAYS OLD. 



lWisl,a,r^ N._ 



The driwn-featliers r,f young ostriches .ire quite different from those of otiier biuls 

 tbo tipy of each being produced into a tiorny ribbon. 



