Ostrich egg

“ The flesh of the ostrich is edible, but it is so hard and tough that no one would grow ostriches for their flesh. The egg of an ostrich is about as large as two dozen hen eggs. Ostrich eggs are said to be very good, but they are too large for ordinary [Pg 235] use, and the birds are so long in maturing that it would not pay to use them to produce eggs for commercial purposes. ”

“ If the flesh of the ostrich be not much esteemed, its eggs, at all events, are prized in the highest degree by natives and travelers. To say nothing of their flavor, each contains as much as twenty-four of the eggs of the barn-door fowl, and weighs about three pounds.
From the great size of the ostrich egg it might be supposed that one would be a sufficient meal for any man; but I have known instances where two eggs have been dispatched by a single individual, even when mixed with a quantity of flour and fat. ”

“ Aunt Sarah tells Matty a great many interesting things, and she told her about ostriches. She told how they live in hot sandy countries like Africa.
They are so tall and have such long legs they can run as fast as, or faster than, a horse.
A PAIR OF OSTRICHES AT HOME.
They have their nests in a hollow on the ground. The Hottentot likes ostrich eggs to eat. One ostrich egg is as big as sixteen hen’s eggs. So it makes a breakfast for a number of people. The Hottentot breaks a hole in the small end of the egg, stirs up the contents with a stick, and then sets it over the fire to cook. ”

“ Ostrich’s eggs have often been treated of, and every traveller speaks of them according to his particular experience. Probably, when a party of half-a-dozen men have plenty of bread and every other necessary for a good meal, they will find that one egg is quite enough for them; while a stout fellow, destitute of everything but a keen appetite, would find an ostrich’s egg not more than enough to satisfy himself. ”

“ After the hatching season the ostriches lay their eggs all over the plains without any regard to hatching them. These eggs are a prize for the hunters; many a meal has been made of them, and, as our guacho said, many a life had been saved by this habit of the great bird. They keep perfectly fresh for months; one ostrich egg contains as much as ten hen's eggs, so that it makes a good dinner for one person. ”

“ Thus visits to the nest may be often repeated, and it may be converted into a storehouse of very pleasant food, where, every two or three days, as many eggs may be procured as are wanted to regale the whole household.
“An ostrich’s egg weighs commonly near three pounds, and is considered as equal in its square contents to twenty-four hen’s eggs. The yolk has a very pleasant flavour, yet, it must be owned, not the delicacy of a hen’s egg. It is so nourishing and so soon satisfies, that no one can eat a great deal at once. Four very hungry persons would be requisite to eat a whole ostrich’s egg ”

“ In spite of its large size—equalling twenty-four fowls' eggs—an ostrich-egg has no coarse flavour. It takes an hour to boil one hard; in which state it is a splendid article of food for baby ostriches. ”

“ The ostrich lays its eggs in the thick grass on the dry plain; two eggs fill a man’s hat, and weigh as much as two pounds each. The ostrich lays a great number, spread out in the nest over so wide a space that it is very certain one bird cannot cover them all sitting, even by spreading all their feathers over them. Yet the eggs are all broken when the hatching is over, and the young have left the nest. The ostrich is so wild, it is difficult to become well acquainted with its habits. The number of young that appear upon the plain do not compare with the number of egg-shells found ”

“ Various are the purposes to which ostrich’s eggs are applied:—first, they are in great favor as a culinary luxury, and are much sought after by the captains of merchant vessels touching at the African ports, being purchased by them of the slave herdsmen, whose perquisites they generally are, for about sixpence each. A good sized egg weighs eleven ounces, is near seven inches in depth, and holds five pints and a quarter; consequently it is considered to afford a meal which will perfectly satisfy four hungry white men, or eight of the more moderate blacks. ”

“ Tortoise shells of immense size are often found on the plains of Cape Colony, broken in much the same manner as the ostrich eggs. This crow evidently is as fond of the inmate of the tortoise shell as he is of the contents of an ostrich egg.
The white crow is not the only enemy of an ostrich nest. The worst foes are the jackals. These plunder the nests, often rolling the eggs off with their paws to some considerable distance.
The Hottentots are very fond of ostrich eggs. If they discover a nest they will often remove one or two of the eggs from time to time. ”

“ To travellers in the African deserts these huge eggs form a convenient and portable provision; their flavour is excellent, and the shell so thick that they keep perfectly fresh for a fortnight or three weeks. Tristram mentions having found Ostrich egg omelette a most valuable addition to his desert bill of fare. When two months old the young acquire a plumage similar to that of the adult female; this is retained by both sexes for two years, when the male exhibits black feathers and has attained his full size and strength. ”

“ As the ostrich belongs to the same species as fowls, it leads, as they do, a domestic life. Every ostrich family consists of one male bird and five females, who keep constantly together. These birds have a common nest, which consists merely of a hole in the sand, protected by a wall of sand. Every egg stands upon its pointed end, in order to take as little room as possible. When there are from ten to twelve eggs in the nest, they begin to sit upon them alternately, the female by day and the male by night ”

“ 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. ”

“ When an enemy approaches, the hen that has charge of the flock will endeavour to attract the intruder upon herself, making a feint of being wounded, spreading and drooping her wings, and tumbling from side to side along the ground, while the cock draws off the chicks in an opposite direction! Partridges, wild ducks, and many other birds, do the same.
The eggs of the ostrich are of a dull white colour. They are not all of equal size, nor are the birds either. A medium-sized ostrich-egg is six inches long, and weighs about three pounds. ”

“ We have got the business down so fine now that we understand all the various processes of breeding, rearing, herding, feeding, plucking, and sorting. We buy and sell ostriches just as we do sheep. We fence in our flocks, stable them, grow crops for them, study their habits, and cut their feathers as matters of business. We don’t send the eggs to market along with our butter and cheese, as they are altogether too dear for consumption. It is true that an ostrich egg will make a meal for three or four 31persons; but at five dollars an egg, which is the usual price, the meal would be a dear one. ”

“ The first is the egg of the ostrich, the shell of which is too hard to be broken by the feeble beak of the Egyptian Vulture. The bird cannot, like the lämmergeier, carry the egg into the air and drop it on the ground, because its feet are not large enough to grasp it, and only slip off its round and polished surface. Therefore, instead of raising the egg into the air and dropping it upon a stone, it carries a stone into the air and drops it upon the egg. So at least say the natives of the country which it inhabits, and there is no reason why we should doubt the truth of the statement. ”

“ Eggs of wild birds are esteemed on account of the flavor that is given them by the food of the birds, and on account of the larger proportion of the more nutritious yellow that they contain. The ostrich is beginning to take rank as a valuable egg-producing domestic fowl. Each female bird will lay from twelve to sixteen, even, according to some, from twenty-five to thirty eggs, in August and September; and, as several couples will sometimes unite to hatch together, it often happens that as many as sixty eggs may be found in and around a single nest. ”

“ All this is simple enough, and yet the work of hatching is most complicated and requires not only care but a capability of tracing results which is not given to all men. The ostrich turns her egg frequently, so that each side of it may receive due attention. The ostrich farmer must therefore turn his eggs. ”

“ There are soft eggs laid entirely without shells, or with only the albuminous inner membrane. This occurs chiefly in hens that are too fat; and this failing can be remedied by supplying calcareous substances with their food.
Egg-shell is much used in medical prescriptions. When calcined at a low red heat the shells afford a very pure form of carbonate of lime. The principal use of egg-shells is, however, when blown, for the cabinets of private ornithological collections and those of public museums. The eggs of the ostrich are often mounted in silver, and form elegant drinking-cups ”

“ Thus the ostrich lays from 12 to 16, the teal 15, the partridge 12-20, while among many other species the number is strictly limited, as in the case of the hornbills and guillemots, which lay but a single egg; the apteryx, divers, petrels and pigeons never lay more than 2, while the gulls and plovers never exceed 4. Tropical species are said to lay fewer eggs than their representatives in temperate regions, and further immature birds lay more and smaller eggs than when fully adult. ”

“ Great progress in ostrich-farming has been made in the last five years, in Arizona, California, Florida and Arkansas. The birds thrive on alfalfa, and where this pasturage is plentiful they have attained a larger growth than those imported from Africa, reaching a weight of 375 pounds and a height of 8 or even 10 feet. The female seldom lays a fertile egg until she is 3^-years old. The nest is a round hole in the ground, which the male scoops out with his feet. At first the female may lay her eggs on the ground, and the male will roll them into the nest. ”

“ I found the nest to be of the roughest description, being simply a hole scooped in the ground, under shelter of a bush, and made soft for the young chicks by a few wisps of grass.
The number of eggs found in a nest varies from ten to forty, being usually about twenty. In size the Patagonian ostrich's egg is equal to about eight hen's eggs. It is the male bird that hatches the eggs and looks after the young—being, I believe, the only male among birds which does so. ”

“ Livingstone did not agree with Andersson, who considered that ostrich eggs made an excellent repast; to the great explorer they had a rank, disagreeable flavor, which only the keen appetite of the desert made acceptable to the palate. [Pg 375]
The shells of ostrich eggs are highly prized, for they are used for holding various kinds of liquids. Among the Bushmen there are scarcely any household utensils other than the ostrich eggshells. The shells are often covered with a light network, so that they may be slung across the saddle. ”

“ If eating and fighting were evidences of their being "in the pink," those birds must have enjoyed exceptional health. They also slept well, I believe.
After about a month one enormous egg arrived—an egg that would not have disgraced a young ostrich. Its huge dimensions worried my aunt. She wondered if they were a symptom, and consulted Nibletts.
He put it down to the food. He said that kitchen scraps were "no good for laying pullets." "That egg, lady," he said, "is what us fanciers call—excuse me—" (I saw my aunt shudder in anticipation) —"a bloomer. You must give 'em a lot more meal." ”

“ Look too at the difference in size, between the egg of the Humming Bird, no bigger than a pea, and that of the Ostrich, as large as a man's head nearly, or bigger still that of the Epyornis, of which fossil remains have been found in Madagascar, the contents of which must have been equal to six ostrichs', or one hundred and forty-eight common hens' eggs, that is about seventeen English pints ”

“ The shell is very thick and hard, and the heat of the fire will not break it.
There is somebody else who likes ostrich eggs too, and that somebody is a kind of fox. He comes when the ostrich is away and helps himself. Sometimes the ostrich comes home and finds him at it. ”

“ The partiality of jackals and crows for ostrich-eggs, expensive though it is to us, reflects credit on their taste; for the eggs are certainly delicious. Those which, being useless for setting, found their way into my kitchen, were always most acceptable ”

“ These eggs are from five and one-half to six inches in longest diameter, and are equivalent to about twenty-four eggs of the common fowl. The shell is so thick and strong that it has been used as a water-vessel by South African tribes. In their native haunts ostriches feed on grass, herbs, insects and reptiles, but in captivity they swallow nearly everything not too large. Ostrich-farming is now carried on in Cape Colony, Australia, Buenos Ayres, the United States and other places where the African ostrich has been introduced. ”