THE OSTRICH. Ill 



perfectly hidden ; while the hen, at day-time, closely resembles a 

 stone, bush, ant-heap, or any little inequality of the veld. One 

 is surprised to see how close such a large bird can lie to the 

 ground, and how even an Ostrich-farmer may almost walk over a 

 sitting hen in full daylight without seeing her. The cock is 

 simply indistinguishable at night, except to a practised eye, and 

 then only at a few yards distance. It may be urged that the 

 black of the cock is not a protection in the morning or after- 

 noon during daylight. This is not quite correct. In the 

 very early morning, or in the afternoon towards sundown, it is 

 most difficult to distinguish him; and it is but for two or 

 three hours altogether that he is in the broad daylight, that 

 being the only time in the whole twenty-four hours when the 

 nest is not protected in a singularly effective manner by the 

 colour of the sitting bird. Even then, unless one is close to the 

 nest, his low-lying, long-curved, motionless form blends so 

 closely with the ground and surrounding objects as to be much 

 more difficult to discover than an inexperienced person could 

 believe. 



The little Embankment around the Nest. 



As sitting continues, a little embankment is gradually raised 

 around the nest, where the nature of the soil permits. This is 

 not in the original plan of the nest, but is made during the in- 

 cubation of the eggs. The sitting bird, while on the nest, some- 

 times pecks the sand up with its beak nearly as far from the nest 

 as it can reach, and drops it around the body. A little embank- 

 ment is thus gradually formed, and often, just outside, a shallow 

 irregular trench, from which the soil has been taken. The forma- 

 tion of both is aided by a peculiar habit of the birds. When the 

 bird on the nest is much excited (as by the approach of other 

 birds or people), it snaps up the sand spasmodically without 

 rising from the nest, and without lifting its head more than a few 

 inches from the ground. The bank is raised by such sand as 

 falls inward, and the trench is deepened. 



The original nest, as has been pointed out, is merely a 

 shallow depression, the earth scraped out being mostly scattered 

 far and wide by the vigorous kicks of the cock. As sitting con- 

 tinues the depression is very liable to silt up again ; this is aided 

 by the bird scraping in sand now and then when working the 



