File:Stories about birds of land and water (1874) (14727880566).jpg

Identifier: storiesaboutbird00kirb (find matches)
Title: Stories about birds of land and water
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Kirby, Mary, 1817-1893 Kirby, Elizabeth, 1823-1873
Subjects: Birds -- Juvenile literature
Publisher: Hartford (Conn.) : American Publishing Co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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utas he runs. He is in many respects so like an animal, that he forms almost a linkbetween the animals and the birds. Indeed, he is so like the camel that he iscalled the camel-bird. His foot resembles the hoof of the camel. It has onlytwo toes, and both point forward ; and the first is longer than the second, andends in a thick hoof-like claw. And the habits of the ostrich resemble those of the camel ; they bothlive in the sandy desert, and are able to go a very long time without drinking. The ostrich does not make any nest, but merely scoops out a hole in thesand. When the proper season comes, the mother ostrich begins to lay hereggs ; she lays about a dozen, and they are very large, and of a dirty whitecolour. In the day-time she leaves them under the burning rays of the sun;but when night comes, and the air is cooler, she broods over them. The natives of the country go out looking for the eggs of the ostrich.One monster ^gg has in it as much as thirty of our hens eggs, and is con-
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THE OSTRICH. STORIES A I) OUT BIRDS. sidered a great dainty. But they are very careful how they set about thetask of robbing the nest. They choose the time when the mother ostrich isaway, and then they take a long stick and push the eggs out of the hole. Ifthey touched any of them with their fingers, the ostrich would find it out in aminute, and go into a great rage. She would break all the eggs that wereleft with her hoof-like feet, and never lay in that place again. Sometimes anumber of mother ostriches will lay their eggs in the same nest. The flesh of such a great bird as the ostrich is, as you may think, notver)- tender. It was considered unclean by the Jews, and the Arabs, for thesame reason, will not touch it. But when Rome was at the height of herluxury, people hardly knew what fresh dishes to invent, and a dish of ostrichesbrains was as great a luxury, and more difficult to get, than peacockstongues. A gluttonous and cruel emperor had as many as six hundredostriches killed to

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