AFRICA. 249 
my people, an oftrich ftarted up at the dif- 
tance of twenty paces from me ; and as I 
doubted whether it might not be a female 
which had been fitting, I haflened to the fpot 
from which I faw it depart, where I found 
eleven eggs ftill warm, and four more fcat- 
tered at the diftance of two or three feet from 
the neft. Having called to my companions, 
who inftantly flocked round me, I ordered 
them to break one of the warm eggs, in 
which we perceived a young one completely 
formed, and of the fize of a chicken when 
ready to burft its fhell. I imagined that all 
thefeeggswere fpoiledjbut my people thought 
otherwife. Each of them endeavoured to 
fall upon the neft; and Amiroo, taking up 
the other four, defired me to eat them, affur^ 
ing me that I ftiould find them excellent, 
I here learned from this favage a circum- 
fiance which my Hottentots themfelves were 
ignorant of, and which is even unknown to 
naturalifts, fmce no one whom I know 
fpeaks of it. This fadl, which I have often 
afterwards had an opportunity of verifying, 
is, that the oflrich always depofits near her 
nefl a certain number of eggs, proportioned 
to thofe which fhe deftines for incubation. 
As 
