OSTRICH EGGS AND FOOD. 1 43 



male and female assist in the incubations ; but the 

 numbers of females being always greatest, it is probable 

 that cases occur in which the females have the entire 

 charge. Several eggs he out of the nest, and are thought 

 to be intended as food for the first of the newly-hatched 

 brood till the rest come out and enable the whole to start 

 in quest of food. I have several times seen newly-hatched 

 young in charge of the cock, who made a very good 

 attempt at appearing lame in the plover fashion, in order 

 to draw off the attention of pursuers. The young squat 

 down and remain immovable when too small to run far, 

 but attain a wonderful degree of speed when about the 

 size of common fowls. It cannot be asserted that ostriches 

 are polygamous, though they often appear to be so. When 

 caught they are easily tamed, but are of no use in their 

 domesticated state. 



The egg is possessed of very great vital power. One 

 kept in a room during more than three months, in a 

 temperature about 6o°, when broken was found to have 

 a partially developed live chick in it. The Bushmen 

 carefully avoid touching the eggs, or leaving marks of 

 human feet near them, when they find a nest. They go 

 up the wind to the spot, and with a long stick remove 

 some of them occasionally, and, by preventing any sus- 

 picion, keep the hen laying on for months, as we do with 

 fowls. The eggs have a strong disagreeable flavour, which 

 only the keen appetite of the Desert can reconcile one to. 

 The Hottentots use their trousers to carry home the 

 twenty or twenty-five eggs usually found in a nest ; and 

 it has happened that an Englishman, intending to imitate 

 this knowing dodge, comes to the waggons with blistered 

 legs, and, after great toil, finds all the eggs uneatable, 

 from having been some time sat upon. Our countrymen 

 invariably do best when they continue to think, speak,, 

 and act in their own proper character. 



The food of the ostrich consists of pods and seeds of 

 different kinds of leguminous plants, with leaves of various 

 plants ; and, as these are often hard and dry, he picks up 

 a great quantity of pebbles, many of which are as large as 

 marbles. He picks up also some small bulbs, and occa- 

 sionally a wild melon to afford moisture, for one was 

 found with a melon which had choked him by sticking in 

 his throat. It requires the utmost address of the Bush- 

 men, crawling for miles on their stomachs, to stalk them 



