THE WILD OSTRICH 
757 
ingly colored as in daylight. The rest 
of the time it is brilliant starlight, and 
against the desert sand the cock is even 
then more visible than the hen. 
Nor is this all. Mr. Scully says the 
cock sits on the nest during four hours 
of daylight, the two hours after sunrise 
and the two hours before sunset. These 
are precisely the four hours during 
which carnivores are most active if 
they are abroad during daylight at all. 
African carnivorous beasts are for the 
most part nocturnal; but they are often 
active for a couple of hours before sun¬ 
set or after sunrise; whereas during the 
heat of the day, say from nine o’clock 
until four, it is exceptional for them to 
move round. Therefore, if Mr. Scully 
is correct, the cock ostrich sits on the 
nest during the very hours of daylight 
when its revealing coloration is most 
dangerous and disadvantageous, while 
the hen sits on the nest during the 
hours when her concealing coloration 
is of little or no consequence. 
Mr. Scully’s theory — the accepted 
theory of many closet naturalists — has 
no warrant in fact. All the evidence 
goes to show that neither the revealing 
coloration of the cock ostrich, nor the 
concealing coloration of the hen, is a 
survival factor. The birds’ habits and 
surroundings, their keen sight, wariness, 
speed, and fecundity, and the desert 
conditions, not their coloration pat¬ 
terns, are the survival factors. 
Mr. Scully speaks of the curious 
waltzing or gyrating of the ostriches 
as not occurring among wild birds. 
I saw it twice among parties of wild 
birds in the Sotik country, beyond the 
Guaro Nyero of the south. Mr. Scully 
says that, as ostriches live under ‘con¬ 
stant menace’ from carnivorous foes, 
‘the general practice of gyration or of 
any exercise calculated to attract the 
attention of enemies is unthinkable.’ 
The facts directly contradict this asser¬ 
tion. In the first place, by the time the 
young birds are old enough to gyrate 
or waltz, they are so conspicuous that 
any foe is sure to see them, whether 
they are walking about or gyrating; 
and after their early youth ostriches do 
not seek to escape observation — they 
live under such conditions that they 
trust exclusively to seeing their foes 
themselves, and not to eluding the 
sight of their foes. In the second place, 
‘exercises calculated to attract atten¬ 
tion’ not merely are not ‘unthinkable,’ 
but are actual in the cases of many 
birds with far more numerous foes than 
the ostrich has. In East Africa, in parts 
of the ostrich country, I found the 
whydah finches numerous. The very 
conspicuous males performed continu¬ 
ously in their dancing rings, and their 
exercise was ‘calculated to attract the 
attention of’ every beast or bird that 
possessed eyesight. Relatively to the 
size of the bird, it was far more con¬ 
spicuous, far more advertising to all 
possible enemies, than the waltzing of 
the ostrich. Certain antelopes, espe¬ 
cially when young, indulge in play al¬ 
most as conspicuous. 
Mr. Scully’s explanation (of a condi¬ 
tion which does not exist) is to the effect 
that ‘probably’ the ostrich had its 
origin in some ‘vast Australian tract 
where carnivora were scarce.’ This is 
mere wild guesswork; all the informa¬ 
tion that we have indicates that it is 
the reverse of the truth. 
Mr. Scully writes with genuine 
charm about much of his subject. This 
would be in no way interfered with if he 
were more careful, both in his observa¬ 
tions and in his generalizations. 
