10 THE BOOK OF BIRDS 



does. Moreover, she sits on the nest by day, and her 

 mate takes her place when evening comes. Whether she 

 leaves her post for any long time is a question. Some 

 say she does, during the hottest part of the day, though 

 not, as old writers used to aver, to let the sun help her in 

 hatching the eggs. 



In a former book of mine^ I had something to say 

 about the wonderful way in which Nature protected 

 certain animals by making the colours and markings of 

 their skins so curiously like the long grass or the leaves 

 and branches among which they move, that they are 

 hidden from their enemies as if the fairies had made them 

 invisible. 



Now here in the case of the Ostrich we have another 

 example of this protective resemblance, as it is called. 

 For the hen Ostrich is dressed in brownish grey, a colour 

 which by daylight makes her almost of a piece with the 

 stone-strewn sand around her nest. Whereas the male 

 bird, who goes on duty at night, is a most noticeable 

 fellow by day, dressed as he is in rich glossy black, except 

 for the upper part of the neck, and the lovely plumes 

 of the wings and tail which are snow-white. It is 

 easy to understand that such a black and white bird 

 squatting on the ground would be hard to distinguish 

 at night, even in the broad moonlight. 



Where the open country which the Ostrich loves is 

 dotted, as it often is, with clumps of heath and other 

 bushes, the hen bird will choose a patch of ground in the 

 midst of these, and thus get the benefit of the shelter 

 they afford, poor though it is. 



The brooding time lasts for six or seven weeks, and 

 both the parent birds must be glad when it is over. For 



1 The Book of Animals (London : Andrew Melrose). 



