Samuel Cron Cronwright-Schreiner

“ When defending the nest the cock carries himself splendidly, with erect straight neck, his attitude being most imposing and defiant. But when the hen (or the cock) is advancing to protect the chicks, she comes with a rapid, shuffling stride, hissing violently, with wings fluttering at right angles to the body, flat to the front, and almost touching the ground. Often both cock and hen will run away with the chicks, but if the enemy is close the chicks, especially when very young, will scatter in all directions, and squat separately. Even when older they will squat, if hard pressed. ”

“ The cock, at night, is, of course, almost perfectly hidden; while the hen, at day-time, closely resembles a stone, bush, ant-heap, or any little inequality of the veld. One is surprised to see how close such a large bird can lie to the ground, and how even an Ostrich-farmer may almost walk over a sitting hen in full daylight without seeing her. The cock is simply indistinguishable at night, except to a practised eye, and then only at a few yards distance. It may be urged that the black of the cock is not a protection in the morning or afternoon during daylight. ”

“ When the Ostrich runs thus, with its wings raised, it generally moves with a high, springy, bounding step, never with the long raking stride of the bird that, hard-pressed, is fleeing for its life. Raised wings are undoubtedly an obstacle to the greatest pace. So the Springbuck, when he stretches himself out to run his fastest, shuts down his fan, as the attitude which enables him to expand it prevents his attaining to his greatest pace. When an Ostrich, after a long run, is very tired, its wings sometimes droop ”

“ I think that travellers have often mistaken large chicks for hens. Thus, when they see a cock and some half-dozen drab Ostriches together, at a nest or on the veld, they at once class them as cock and hens, and say they are polygamous birds, while it is more than likely that the lot consists of one pair with large chicks. I have often seen a large chick mistaken for an adult hen by men of considerable experience as Ostrich farmers. Such chicks are not easily distinguished from hens, except at close quarters by an experienced man. ”

“ Men have gone in armed only with a heavy stick, and killed as many as they wished. Native herdsmen have been trampled to death by the Bucks, and droves of Afrikander Sheep carried away, never to be recovered, in the surging crowd. So dense is the mass at times, and so overpowering the pressure from the millions behind, that if a sluit (gully) is come to, so wide and deep that the Bucks cannot leap over or go through it, the front ranks are forced in until it is levelled up by their bodies, when the mass marches over and continues its irresistible way. ”

“ In the very early morning, or in the afternoon towards sundown, it is most difficult to distinguish him; and it is but for two or three hours altogether that he is in the broad daylight, that being the only time in the whole twenty-four hours when the nest is not protected in a singularly effective manner by the colour of the sitting bird. Even then, unless one is close to the nest, his low-lying, long-curved, motionless form blends so closely with the ground and surrounding objects as to be much more difficult to discover than an inexperienced person could believe. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Generally, the hen has a somewhat longer time to feed than the cock, but her time is broken into two portions, and she cannot wander so far in search of food as he can, and thus has not the same opportunity of getting on to new ground, where food may be more abundant, from not having been visited so often, for the Ostrich is a destructive feeder, eating out the plants he likes when he has not a sufficiently large run. In compensation, the hen occupies the nest only half as long as the cock, who, however, has his feeding time unbroken, and half his time on the nest at night. ”

“ If sitting begins after the hen has laid her full complement of eggs, naturally all fertile eggs will have sufficient time to hatch. Even if she lays one or two after beginning to sit, still all may hatch, for often one bird will remain on the nest during the day (and of course at night) with such chicks as cannot yet stand or walk, while the other feeds close at hand with the stronger ones. Thus the full time for sitting may be, and often is, exceeded by some days, and all the sound eggs may hatch. ”

“ The original nest, as has been pointed out, is merely a shallow depression, the earth scraped out being mostly scattered far and wide by the vigorous kicks of the cock. As sitting continues the depression is very liable to silt up again; this is aided by the bird scraping in sand now and then when working the outside eggs in under the body, and by the way it seats itself on the nest. It squats at the edge, and then gradually, in a sliding manner, works itself in, until it covers the eggs, dragging in sand during the process, and thus silting up the nest. ”

“ All Ostriches, 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 raised wings, spin round rapidly for some time, often until quite giddy, when a broken leg occasionally occurs. Adult birds, when running in large camps, will often, if the veld 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. ”

“ For instance, the time is admirably arranged to allow each bird to feed. The Ostrich is a peculiar feeder; in the first place he walks rapidly on and on as he feeds, pecking a few leaves here and a few there in his stride, seldom halting unless he finds some plant particularly to his liking, and then only for a minute or two. In the next place, he is not an indiscriminate feeder, but carefully selects what he likes. ”

“ They surrender to any cock, and are thus fertilised. So excited and overwrought are they, that tame hens will often squat on the approach of a man. Having no nests of their own (only one case of a hen unaided making a nest has come under my observation) , they lay their eggs in other hens' nests, each generally keeping to the nest she first selects; or they drop their eggs at random about the veld, this habit no doubt helping to give rise to the old Biblical belief, persisting to the present day, that the Ostrich leaves her eggs in the sand to hatch by the heat of the sun. ”

“ In the earlier days of Ostrich-farming I have seen little incubator-hatched chicks supplied with soft cow-dung and beaten-up Ostrich egg, but nothing of the sort is done now; they are fed with succulent green food, which is enough for all purposes. If left to nature, and allowed to run with their parents, they thrive perhaps better than under any other conditions; only they become very wild, and are liable to be killed by hawks, jackals, and other animals. ”

“ Apart from incubation, it is necessary that the eggs should be covered during the day as a protection, in many parts, against small carnivora and monkeys; against the inclemencies of the weather, such as the frequent and violent hail and rain storms which sweep over the country; and against the great heat, which in the summer is almost tropical. The heat from the direct rays of the sun striking upon unprotected eggs, when, after incubation, development has once set in, is so great that it would kill them. Sand thus exposed becomes so hot that even a hardened hand can scarcely endure it. ”

“ I have known six or eight to share one nest, and have found a nest with one hundred and fifty eggs in and about it, many with from fifty to seventy; but it is very exceptional—in fact, almost unknown—for such nests to yield chicks. If it were natural for several hens to share one nest, chicks should result.
All the hens of one nest keep to that nest, each laying generally about a sitting, and then beginning to brood. If they cannot lay in the nest because it is occupied, they will not often go to another nest, but will deposit their eggs just outside their own. Each nest is owned by one cock ”

“ It will thus be seen that all the differences on which the arguments for classifying the Ostrich into three species are founded, are commonly present among the Ostriches of the Cape Colony—that is, of South Africa generally; for a great many of the Cape Ostriches are the progeny of birds brought down from "The Interior"—the Kalahari Desert, Damaraland, and beyond. There is, I think, little doubt that all South African Ostriches are of one species; individual variations, accentuated by local differences of food and climate, are quite sufficient to account for all supposed varieties. ”

“ If, during the laying of the eggs, or after the pair have begun to sit, other hens lay in the nest or sit on it, the yield of chicks will not be so great; there will never, as far as my experience goes, be a good yield; often there are no chicks at all. The pair frequently abandon the nest. A good yield of chicks, in proportion to the eggs laid, is seldom obtained from any nest in which more than one hen lays or broods; with two hens, a good yield may be got in proportion to the eggs actually sat upon ”

“ At an age, generally from about twelve to eighteen months, chicks begin to moult their youthful plumage of narrow pointed feathers, and gradually acquire those of the adult bird, possessing them in their entirety, at the latest, when about four years old. Up to the time when the change begins, the sexes are not distinguishable; but after the moult the cocks acquire a black and the hens a drab plumage, which differs from that of a big chick not so much in colour as in the shape and quality of the feathers. ”

“ If an egg should be broken in the nest, the old birds eat it, shell and all, as they will often do when the first chick or two hatch out. This habit has no doubt given rise to the erroneous belief, expressed by one of the authorities, that the cock breaks the chicks out—cracking the shell with his breast, shaking the chick loose, and then swallowing the membrane. ”

“ When a cock is ready to breed, he pairs with one hen, and with her makes the nest. If they escape the intrusion of other hens, this state of monogamy continues, and chicks result; if they do not, polygamy will probably take place, almost always with disastrous consequences to the nest. ”

“ Y/hen a bird really settles itself to run it holds its head lower than usual, and a little forward, with a deep loop in the neck. The neck vibrates sinuously, but the head remains steady, thus enabling the bird, even at top speed, to look around with unshaken glance in any direction. The wings lie along the sides about on a level with, or a little higher than, the back, and are held loosely just free of the plunging "thigh." ”

“ When first hatched the chicks are perfectly helpless; the back of the head and adjoining portion of the neck are greatly swollen and out of shape, as are the legs, especially the tarsi and toes, which are puffed and jelly-like, and of a transparent-looking pinkish yellow. The eyes have a cloudy expressionless appearance. For some hours they cannot even hold up their heads; they cannot stand until at least twenty-four hours old, nor get about at all until another day older, and then only in a very ricketty manner, tumbling over every few steps ”