OSTRICH. 



•or more in a feafon j thefe fhe is faid to bury in the fand, and to 

 be hatched by the heat of the fun only, and that the young 

 run as foon as they come out of the egg : though others deny 

 this ; for Kclben fays, that the male and female fit on them by 

 turns, and that he has feen them hatching their eggs hundreds 

 of times, and as often driven them off, and took the eggs, to 

 feaft himfelf and his friends (and fome of them were near hatch- 

 ing) ; one of them proves a meal for three or four perfons, and 

 they are faid to be very good. The young, he fays, cannot run 

 at firft, but are fupplied by the old ones with grafs and water, 

 and defended by them, till they can take care of themfelves, fo 

 furioufly as to render it dangerous to go near them at fuch 

 times. If the eggs be touched, the old ones will forfake them *. 



This bird, as well as fize, is alfo endued with firength in 

 proportion j for inftances are recorded where one has borne two 

 men on its back, and has run along with them with the greateft 

 eafe f. 



The food of the Ofirich is of the 'vegetable kind, grafs, fruits, 

 grain, &C. befides which it is frequently obferved to fwallow 

 many foreign articles, as bits of iron, copper, glafs, lead, and the 

 like ; but though this is often done with impunity, yet it is {een 



* B.'ffon allows that the Ofirich fcarce ever lofes fight of the eggs ; but that it 

 is only in the more northern parts that the female has occafion to fit on them ; 

 in the torrid zone, the fun alone being fully fufficient. This may account for 

 the pofitive afiertion of Kolben, that the Ofirich hatches her own eggs, as well 

 as the opinion of others, who maintain the contrary. 



f Adanjon. — He thinks that their pace is fwifter than that of the fleeted horfe. 

 Voy. Seneg. p. 87. — " Whilft I wa; here (at Vintain), I faw an Ofirich with a 

 man riding on it's back, who was going down to the fort, it being a prefent to 

 the Governor." Moore' 'iTrav. into Africa, p. 318. 



in 



