OSTRICH. 
463 
Ostrich is polygamous, an error respecting this bird 
has slipt into the Systemci Natures , where it is said 
that one female lays fifty eggs.” 
Subsequent travellers have contradicted the re- 
port of Dr. Shaw, that ostriches have a very little 
share of natural affection ; that upon the least noise 
or most trivial occasion they forsake their eggs, and 
never return again to the nest. On the contrary, 
the ostrich is exceedingly attached to her young, 
and watches her eggs with an assiduity which is not 
exceeded by any bird. In the burning climate of 
Africa, where there is no fear of the eggs being chill- 
ed by the weather, the female may indeed leave 
her nest for a time ; but in consequence of her in- 
stinctive knowledge she always returns in the even- 
ing, and carefully broods over them during the 
night. Nor is it true that they forsake their young 
as soon as they are hatched, notwithstanding the in- 
formation which Dr. Shaw collected from the Arabs, 
that they often met a few of the little ones, no big- 
ger than full-grown pullets, straggling about di- 
stressed, and making a mournful noise for their 
mother. The young ones, on the contrary, are not 
even able to walk for several days after they are 
hatched, but are regularly attended by their pa- 
rents, who supply them with grass, and even make 
use of artifice to conceal them from danger. As 
Thunberg one morning rode past a place where a 
hen ostrich sat upon her nest, the bird sprung up 
and pursued him, with a view to prevent his no- 
ticing her young ones or her eggs. Every time he 
