Photo by W. Reid] [Wishaw, N.B.
OSTRICH STANDING BESIDE HER EGGS.
In a wild state both cock and hen take part in the preparation of the nest.
With the gradual perfection of its running powers, there has followed a gradual change in the form of the leg. This change has taken place by reduction in the number of the toes. Of the original five with which its ancestors began life only two now remain—the third and fourth. The third is of great size, having apparently waxed great at the expense of the other toes, a growth which seems to be still in progress, inasmuch as the fourth toe is undoubtedly dwindling. It is very small, and gives unmistakable signs of growing smaller, since it has now become nailless. When it has quite disappeared, the ostrich, like the horse, will have but a single toe on each foot—the third. The dainty, mincing step of the ostrich is a delight to watch, and, thanks to the Zoological Gardens, this can be done even in smoky London.
The ostrich, like its cousin of South America, the rhea, commonly associates with herds of the larger mammalia. On the South African veldt the companions of the ostrich are the zebra, wildebeest, and hartebeest, just as on the pampas of South America the rheas are found associated with herds of deer and guanaco.
The egg of the ostrich weighs about 3 lbs., and is of delicious flavour. The empty shell, it has been found by experiment, is large enough to hold the contents of eighteen eggs of the common domesticated fowl. It takes about forty minutes to boil an ostrich egg hard. About fifteen eggs represent the clutch. The nest is a mere depression in the sand. The hen sits by day, and her mate by night; but the eggs are never left, as is sometimes stated, to the heat of the sun, so as to lessen the duties of the parent. Such a course would infallibly destroy the eggs, for the sun's rays, especially at noon, are very powerful.
The male and female ostrich differ much in coloration. In the former the trunk is clothed in a vestment of richest black, whilst the quills of the wings and tail-feathers are of pure white: they form the much-prized ostrich plumes. The female is much less splendid, being clothed in sober grey. But these colours are not merely ornamental; they render the male by night and the female by day invisible, owing to the perfect harmony they make with their surroundings, thus affording an interesting illustration of protective coloration.
"All ostriches," says Mr. Cronwright Schreiner, "adults as well as chicks, have a strange habit known as 'waltzing.' When chicks are let out from a kraal in the early morning, they will often start away at a great pace. After running for a few hundred yards they will all stop, and, with wings raised, spin round rapidly for some time, often till quite giddy, when a broken leg occasionally occurs. Adult birds, when running in large camps, will often, if the veldt is good, do the same, especially if startled in the fresh of the early morning. A troop of birds waltzing, in full plumage, is a remarkably pretty sight. Vicious cocks 'roll' when challenging to fight, also when wooing the hen. The cock will suddenly bump down on to his 'knees' ... open his wings, making a straight line across his breast, and then swing them alternately backwards and forwards ... as if on a pivot, each wing, as it comes forward, being raised, while that going backward is depressed. The neck is lowered until the head is on a level with the back, and the head and neck swing from side to side with the wings, the back of the head striking with a loud click against the ribs, first on the one side and then on the other. The click is produced by the skin of the neck, which then bulges loosely just under the beak and for some distance downwards. While 'rolling,' every feather over the whole body is on end, and the plumes are open, like a large white fan. At such a time the bird sees very imperfectly, if at all; in fact, he seems so preoccupied that, if pursued, one may often approach unnoticed. I have walked up to a 'rolling' cock and seized him by the neck, much to his surprise. Just before rolling, a cock, especially if courting the hen, will often run slowly and daintily on the points of his toes, with neck slightly inflated, upright and rigid, the tail half drooped, and all his body-feathers fluffed up; the wings raised and expanded, the inside edges touching the sides of the neck for nearly the whole of its length, and the plumes showing separately, like an open fan ... on each side of his head. In no other attitude is the splendid beauty of his plumage displayed to such advantage."
Photo by W. Reid] [Wishaw, N.B.