THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
446 
all their eggs together in one nest; the nest being merely a shallow cavity 
scraped in the ground, of such dimensions as to be conveniently covered by one 
of these gigantic birds in incubation. A most ingenious device is employed to 
save space, and give at the same time to all the eggs their due share of warmth. 
The eggs are made to stand,each with the narrow end on the bottom of the 
nest and the broad end upward ; and the earth which has been scraped out to 
form the cavity is employed to confine the outer circle, and keep the whole in 
the proper position. The hens relieve each other in the office of incubation during 
the day, and the male takes his turn at night, when his superior strength is 
required to protect the eggs or the new-fledged young from the jackals, tiger- 
cats and other enemies. Some of these animals, it is said, are not unfrequently 
found lying dead near the nest, destroyed by a stroke from the foot of this 
As many as sixty 
eggs are sometimes 
found in and around 
an ostrich's nest; but 
a smaller number is 
more common, and 
incubation is occa¬ 
sionally performed by 
a single pair of 
ostriches. Each fe¬ 
male lays from twelve 
to sixteen eggs. 
They continue to lay 
during incubation, 
and even after the 
young brood are 
hatched; the super¬ 
numerary eggs are 
not placed in the nest, 
but around it, being 
designed to assist in 
the nourishment of 
the young birds, which, though as large as a pullet when first hatched, are prob¬ 
ably unable at once to digest the hard and acrid food on which the old ones 
subsist. The period of incubation is from thirty-six to forty days. In the 
middle of the day the nest is occasionally left by all the birds, the heat of 
the sun being then sufficient to keep the eggs at the proper temperature. 
The ostrich of South Africa is a prudent and wary animal, and displays little 
of that stupidity ascribed to this bird by some naturalists. On the borders of Cape 
Colony, at least, where it is eagerly pursued for the sake of its valuable plumage, 
the ostrich displays no want of sagacity in providing for its own safety or the 
security of its offspring. It adopts every possible precaution to conceal the place 
of its nest, and uniformly abandons it, after destroying the eggs, if it perceives 
that the eggs have been disturbed or the footsteps of man are discovered near it. 
In relieving each other in hatching, the birds are said to be careful not to be 
seen together at the nest, and are never observed to approach it in a direct line. 
