THE OSTRICn. 



209 



night the male sits over and guards tliem. In Cape Colony 

 ostrich-cnlture has become an important business; in 1865 

 there were only eighty individuals on the ostrich farms; in 

 1875 there were 33,247 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 



e5Ci-£»r 



&*', t 1 , '■,- ,-■ .^ 



'If. ,t ■ r .• ' / - . 



Fig. 245. — South American Ostrich. From Liitken's Zoology. 



for its feathers. According to Herbert Smith, its food con- 

 sists of seeds, grass, insects, etc., and the herdsmen say 

 that it also eats snakes. "The nest is a mere shallow 

 hole scratched in tlie ground; twenty, thirty, or more eggs 

 are found togetlici', but it appears that these are not all laid 

 by one bii'd: several females lay their eggs together, and 



