126 



THAT'S IT ; 



young birds until they are old 

 enough to digest the hard and 

 acrid food on which the old birds 

 subsist. The food of the ostrich 

 consists of the tops of shrubby 

 plants, seeds, and grain ; strange 

 to say. however, it will swallow 

 with indiscriminating voracity 

 stones, sticks, pieces of metal, 

 cord, leather, and other sub- 

 stances, which often occasion its 

 destruction. The period of in- 

 cubation (hatching) is from thirty- 

 six to forty days. In the middle 

 of the day the nest is often left 

 by all the birds, the heat of the 

 sun being then sufficient to keep 

 the eggs at the proper tempera- 

 ture. 



The flesh of the ostrich, when young, is very 

 palatable, and the eggs are excellent. If, how- 

 ever, the bird perceives that the latter hare 

 been disturbed by the hand, or that the nest 

 has been visited, she breaks them all and aban- 

 dons the spot ; hence the natives abstract these 

 delicacies by means of a long stick, with the 

 utmost caution, and endeavour to prevent the 

 prints of their footsteps from being visible ; if 

 this be well managed, the hen will continue to 

 lay for some time. The voice of the ostrich is, 

 under ordinary circumstances, a hoarse sono- 

 rous sort of chuckle ; but it is said to utter, 

 especially at night, a roaring so like that of the 

 lion, as to deceive the Hottentots. The young 

 ostrich is covered with coarse mottled and 

 striped plumage of a blackish brown and yel- 

 lowish white, the feathers of the back having 

 the shafts dilated into a thin horny stripe. 

 The height of the adult male is from seven to 

 eight feet or more, standing upright. The 

 beautiful plumes which are so valued in com- 

 merce are procured from the wings and tail. 

 Great as in modern days the slaughter of 

 ostriches, in the time of the Roman emperors 

 it must have been far more considerable. We 

 read of the brains of six hundred having been 

 served up in a single dish ; and Vopiscus is said 

 to have devoured an entire ostrich (a chicken, 

 doubtless), at one sitting. By the Mosaic law 

 the ostrich was f orbidden as food, and the Arabs 

 still regard it as unclean.* 



The whip-poor-vrill, 19, is an 

 American species of goat-sucker. 

 The sight of these birds appears 

 deficient during the day, as, like 

 owls, they seem to want the 



* Knight's Pictorial Museum of Animated Nature. 



vivacity for which they are dis- 

 tinguished in the morning and 

 evening twilight. The female 

 resorts to an unfrequented part 

 of* a wood, often where some 

 brush, old logs, heaps of leaves, 

 &c, have accumulated. She be- 

 gins to lay about the second week 



19 



in May ; the eggs are deposited 

 on the ground, or on the leaves, 

 not the slightest appearance of a 

 nest being visible. The eggs are 

 usually two in number, of a dark 

 colour, marbled with olive. 



The notes of these birds seem pretty plainly 

 to articulate the words which have been gene- 

 rally applied to them, whip-poor-will, the first 

 and last syllables being uttered with great em- 

 phasis, and the whole in about a second to each 

 repetition ; but when two or more males meet, 

 their whip-poor-will altercations become much 

 more rapid and incessant, as if each were strain- 

 ing to overpower or silence the other. They 

 fly low, not more than a few feet from the sur- 

 face, skimming about. Towards midnight they 

 generally become silent, unless in clear moon- 

 light, when they are heard with little intermis- 

 sion till morning. 



The parrot tribe are an ex- 

 ceedingly numerous and highly 

 interesting family. They are 

 chiefly tropical birds, almost ex- 

 clusively vegetable feeders ; the 

 kernels of fruits, and the buds 

 and flowers of trees, being the 

 chief sources upon which they 

 depend for nourishment. 



