154 
THE OSTRICH. 
Chap. YH. 
to the other end, on he madlj rushed to get past the men, and so 
was speared. He never swerves from the course he once adopts, 
but only increases his speed. 
Wlien the ostrich is feeding his pace is from twenty to twenty- 
two inches; when walking, but not feeding, it is twenty-six 
inches; and when terrified, as in the case noticed, it is from 
eleven and a half to thirteen and even fourteen feet in length. 
Only in one case was I at all satisfied of being able to count the 
rate of speed by a stop watch, and, if I am not mistaken, there 
were thirty in ten seconds; generally one’s eye can no more 
follow the legs than it can the spokes of a carriage-wheel in rapid 
motion. If we take the above number, and twelve feet stride as 
the average pace, we have a speed of twenty-six miles an hour. 
It cannot be very much above that, and is therefore slower than 
a railway locomotive. They are sometimes shot by the horseman 
making a cross cut to their undeviating com^se, but few English¬ 
men ever succeed in killing them. 
The ostrich begins to lay her eggs before she has fixed on a 
spot for a nest, which is only a hollow a few inches deep in the 
sand, and about a yard in diameter. Solitary eggs, named by the 
Bechuanas “ lesetla,” are thus found lying forsaken all over the 
country, and become a prey to the jackal. She seems averse to 
risldng a spot for a nest, and often lays her eggs in that of another 
ostrich, so that as many as forty-five have been found in one nest. 
Some eggs contain small concretions of the matter which forms 
the shell, as occmrs also in the egg of the common fowl; this has 
given rise to the idea of stones in the eggs. Both male and 
female assist in the incubations; but the numbers of females 
being always gTeatest, it is probable that cases occur in which 
the females have the entire charge. Several eggs lie out of the 
nest, and are thought to be intended as food for the first of the 
newly-hatched brood till the rest come out and enable the whole 
to start in quest of food. I have several times seen newly-hatched 
young in charge of the cock, who made a very good attempt 
at appearing lame in the plover fasliion, in order to draw off the 
attention of pursuers. The young squat down and remain im¬ 
movable when too small to run far, but attain a wonderful degree 
of speed when about the size of common fowls. It cannot be 
