STRUTHIONIDAE 29 



the lowing of an ox ; but Ostriches are, as a rule, decidedly silent. 

 In a state of nature the food consists chiefly of herbage, including 

 seeds and fruits ; in captivity the diet is of every description, 

 and even in a wild condition small mammals, birds, reptiles, and 

 insects are eaten, with a quantity of grit to aid digestion, In 

 confinement the birds become very tame, and will then swallow 

 bones, nails, and the like — -in fact almost anything they can pick 

 up. They can exist for a long time without water, but drink 

 regularly when opportunity offers ; they show a liking for salt, 

 and will bathe in the sea or in river§, immersed up to the neck. 

 The hens belonging to one cock lay in the same nest, which is a 

 fairly shallow excavation dug in sand or dry soil, and surrounded 

 by the material thrown out during the process, or more rarely by 

 an edging of grass. The spot is hard to discover in the desert, the 

 stride being too long for tracks to be of much assistance. More 

 than thirty yellowish-white eggs are sometimes deposited within 

 the pit in circular arrangement, and many more are dropped 

 around, to serve, it is asserted, for food for the newly-hatched 

 young ; in the wild state, however, the average number is 

 probably less. The contents, equal to those of some two dozen 

 hens' eggs, are used for food by the natives, the shells forming 

 convenient pots for water and so forth. The cock undertakes 

 almost the whole duty of incubation, being occasionally relieved 

 by the hens during the daytime ; ^ but when the sun is hot no 

 brooding is necessary, though a covering of sand is superposed to 

 guard the spot from the depredations of marauders. The chicks, 

 which run from the shell, are hatched in six or seven weeks, and 

 are accompanied by both parents, the male often counterfeiting 

 wounds to draw away the intruder, circling around with drooping 

 wings or throwing himself down as if in extremities. 



Ostriches were well known to the ancients, who used the 

 plumes for ornament, as we do ; these were considered emblems of 

 justice from the equality of the two webs, or were worn in token 

 of victory, as is still done in some parts of Africa. The words 

 of Aristotle — who was followed by Pliny in the statement that the 

 Ostrich was part quadruped, part bird — combine with those of 

 Xenophon to bear witness to this knowledge, while monuments, 

 inscriptions, and even the Bible tell the same tale. In the Sahara 

 and elsewhere these birds are hunted with horses and camels, 



1 P. L. Sclater, P.Z.8. 1895, p. 401. 



