BLACK OSTRICH* 



423 



Colour. The female differs in having those fea- 

 thers brown that are black in the male. 



Ostriches inhabit the sandy and burning deserts 

 of Africa and Asia ; they are oftentimes found in 

 large flocks, and commit great ravages amongst 

 corn-fields in the interior of the country about the 

 Cape of Good Hope, where they are extremely 

 numerous, as they are also in the neighbouring 

 islands. 



The Ostrich is one of the few polygamous birds 

 found in a state of nature, one male being generally 

 seen with two or three, and frequently with five 

 females : it has been commonly believed that the 

 female, after depositing her eggs in the sand, and 

 there covering them up, trusts them to be hatched 

 by the heat of the climate, and leaves the young 

 ones to shift for themselves ; but, however, it has 

 been ascertained by recent observations, that no 

 bird has a stronger affection for her offspring than 

 this, and that none watches her eggs with greater 

 assiduity, as she also does the young when newly 

 excluded, they not being able to walk for several 

 days, during which time they are regularly sup- 

 plied with grass and water by the old birds, who 

 likewise defend them from harm, and will even 

 encounter every danger in their defence. The 

 females which are united to one male deposit all 

 their eggs in the same place, to the number of ten 

 or twelve each ; these they hatch all together, the 

 male also taking his turn of sitting on them : as 

 many as sixty or seventy eggs have been observed 



