THE OSTRICH AND HER PROGENY. 359 



The nest of the Ostrich is more than three feet in diameter ; it is 

 only a hole dug in the sand, and surrounded by a kind of rampart 

 composed of the debris; a trench is scratched round it outside to drain 

 off the water. Each hen bird lays from fifteen to twenty eggs, 

 according to circumstances. The eggs weigh from two to three 

 pounds, and are each of them equal in contents to about twenty-five 

 hen eggs. They are of a tolerable flavour, and often a very season- 

 able meal to travellers, one of them being more than sufficient for 

 the breakfast of two or three persons. 



Incubation usually takes six weeks, and is shared by both male 

 and female birds ; several of the latter often lay in the same nest, 

 and live together on the best terms, under the control of one male. 

 Levaillant remarked four females taking turns in sitting on thirty- 

 eight eggs laid in the same nest ; they sat during the night only, 

 the burning heat of the sun during the day being sufficient to maintain 

 the necessary degree of warmth. He also observed that a certain 

 number of the eggs were not sat upon, but were put aside to serve 

 as nourishment for the young ones after they were hatched. 



It is a strange circumstance that the cry of the Ostrich so much 

 resembles that of the lion when in search of prey that they are often 

 confused. Dr. Livingstone says that with all his experience he has 

 been frequently deceived, and that only the quick ear of a native can 

 detect the difference. 



Want of affection for her progeny was long such a subject of 

 reproach to the Ostrich that she was looked upon as the most striking 

 example of the hard-hearted mother. Thus, the Hebrews accepted 

 the Ostrich as the symbol of insensibility, because she left her eggs 

 upon the sand, without troubling herself, as Job says, about the 

 dangers to which they might be exposed. Jeremiah, too, laments over 

 her that she is devoid of parental affection. All these accusations are 

 quite unfounded ; the Ostrich does not abandon her eggs, neither 

 does she desert her young, although they are well covered at their 

 birth with a thick warm down, and can from the first run about and 

 provide for their own wants. On the contrary, she keeps them near 

 her until they are almost full-grown, and defends them against every 

 enemy. Mr. Cumming with his companions came suddenly one day 

 on a dozen young ostriches no larger than full-grown grouse. " The 

 mother," he says, "tried all she could to deceive us, just like a wild 

 duck ; first she ran away, extending her wings ; then she threw 

 herself on the ground as if she was wounded ; whilst the male bird 

 cunningly conducted the young ones in an opposite direction." 



Livingstone on several occasions met with broods of young 



