This sight grieved us. `What a pity we could not capture this glorious
bird alive!' exclaimed Fritz, as we took its beautiful feathers. `It
must, I am sure, have stood more than six feet high, and two of us
might have mounted him at once!'
`In the vast sandy deserts where nothing grows, what can flocks of
these birds find to live upon?' inquired Ernest.
`That would indeed be hard to say, if the deserts were utterly barren
and unfruitful,' returned I, `but over these sandy wastes a beneficent
Providence scatters plants of wild melons, which absorb and retain
every drop of moisture, and which quench the thirst as well as satisfy
the hunger of the ostriches and other inhabitants of the wilds. These
melons, however, do not constitute his entire diet; he feeds freely on
grasses, dates and hard grain, when he can obtain them.'
`Does the ostrich utter any cry?'
`The voice of the ostrich is a deep hollow rumbling sound, so much
resembling the roar of the lion as to be occasionally mistaken for it.
But what does Jack mean by waving his cap, and beckoning in that
excited fashion? What has the boy found, I wonder?'
He ran a little way towards us, shouting: `Eggs, father! Ostriches'
eggs! A huge nest-full--do come quickly!' We all hastened to the spot,
and in a slight hollow of the ground, beheld more than twenty eggs, as
large as an infant's head.
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