540 ZOOLOGY. 
valuable as articles of commerce, is the largest bird now liv- 
ing, being 2-2-7 metres (6-8 feet) high. It can outrun a 
horse, and lives in flocks. It lays about thirty large white 
eggs in a nest in the sand; they are covered in the day- 
time by the hen or left exposed to the sun, while at night 
the male sits over and guards them. In Cape Colony, os- 
trich-culture has become an important business; in 1865 
Fig. 462.—Great Auk.—From Coues’ Key. 
there were only eighty individuals on the ostrich farms ; in 
1875 there were 32,247 ostriches, either free or in parks 
where Lucerne grass is cultivated as food for these useful 
birds. The South American ostrich is in Patagonia hunted 
for its feathers. During the Eocene Tertiary period a gi- 
gantic ostrich-like bird (Diatryma Cope), twice as large as 
