Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/143

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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. Sometimes, to mislead the pursuer, the parents will feign injury, gradually leading him away from the little chicks. I have seen a cock fall, as if with a broken leg, several times within a couple of hundred yards.

When startled the parents emit a short sound of one note, which is a signal of alarm. When the danger is past the chicks (which when squatting lie perfectly still, blending closely with the ground, and are most difficult to discover) arise, and run about in all directions, calling with their penetrating tremulous cry. The old birds return to the neighbourhood where the little ones scattered, and gather them together again. They do not call, but their height, and their keen sight and hearing, enable them readily to find the crying, moving specks. The chicks, too, are very quick at seeing and running to their parents.

The parents know their own chicks, except when very small, and will kick and peck at others, often killing them. Adult nonbreeding birds also do this, as do large chicks to very small ones.

There seems to be no diversity of opinion as to the polygamy of the Ostrich. It is almost entirely on the fact (an incontestable one), that several hens frequently lay in one and the same nest, that the argument for polygamy is based.

Let us examine this fact, and endeavour to ascertain what it implies.

One cock and one hen (not one cock and several hens) having paired, select a spot, and together make the nest. When the spot is well selected, in some secluded place not easily discovered, and Rh