BIRDS 449 



The Common Cuckoo is a familiar example of the shirking of such 

 domestic duties. The unhatched bird generally has a little hard 

 knob on the tip of its beak, which helps it to break the shell. 



The habits of Birds have proved a never-failing attraction to a 

 very large number of observers, and so much is known about 

 them that choice of material for the present section is very difficult. 

 There is, however, plenty of room for careful scientific investiga- 

 tion, since the work of many so-called ornithologists is extremely 

 superficial, and only to be defined as periodical birds-nesting, 

 undertaken for the purpose of adding rare eggs to a useless and 

 often overstocked collection. 



It will be convenient to consider separately the Running Birds 

 (Ratitee), and Flying Birds (Carinatse). 



Running Birds (Ratit/e). — In all living species the male 

 bird does most if not all of the work of incubation, and also looks 

 after the chicks when they are hatched. African and American 

 Ostriches are polygamous, but Cassowaries, Emeus, and Kiwis 

 are associated in pairs. 



The African Ostrich [StrrUhio camelus) has often been unjustly 

 regarded as a reprehensibly careless parent, an opinion commonly 

 based on the following statement in the Book of Job (xxxix, 

 14-16): — "Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth 

 them in dust, and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that 

 the wild beast may break them. She is hardened against her 

 young ones, as though they were not her's: her labour is in vain 

 without fear." In this species the hens of one establishment 

 scratch out a hole in the sand, within which they lay eggs to the 

 number of over thirty, afterwards covering them over. Other 

 eggs are deposited outside the nest, possibly to serve as the first 

 food of the newly -hatched chicks. Incubation lasts for six or 

 seven weeks, and is undertaken by the cock, his duties in this 

 direction being chiefly performed at night. During the day 

 sufficient warmth is supplied by the sun, though it is said that 

 at this time both sexes in turn brood over the eggs in the cooler 

 parts of the area inhabited. Parents and young live together for 

 some time, the father jealously guarding his offspring, and adopt- 

 ing various stratagems for the purpose of luring away inquisitive 

 visitors whose designs appear to him questionable. 



The habits of the American Ostriches {Rhea) are much the 

 same as those of their African cousins. 



