The Parents' Review

A Monthly Magazine of Home-Training and Culture

Lessons from Darwin.

II. Ostriches

When Darwin was a young man he went a voyage round the world in a ship called the "Beagle." He tells us in an account he has given of his life, that this voyage was the most important thing the ever happened to him. The reason of this is that on board the "Beagle," he began what was afterwards to be the great work of his life, namely, to think about and observe everything he could in the animal and vegetable world around him.

When we read Darwin's "Journal," which is the history of those years spent in going round the world, we are obliged to notice one thing very specially, and this is, how much more use Darwin made of his eyes than we ever do. When he got on shore he went about looking, and watching, and thinking, and we are surprised at the immense number of things he noticed, and the interesting histories he gives us of many animals, plants, and insects. I am afraid when we go out for a walk or spend an afternoon in the garden, we come home again very little wiser than when we went out. We know that we have seen some of our friends perhaps, and we grumble at the muddy roads, but we cannot even tell what clouds were in the sky -- if they lay in great, soft, woolly masses, or in long mares' tails, or piled in layers one about the other.

But when Darwin had been for a walk or spent an hour or two in a garden, he came back with all sorts of interesting news. For instance, he would enclose a tiny space of ground, clear it and dig it, and then watch all the seedlings of weeds and other plants which grew up. Once he found, that in a piece of ground a yard long and two feet wide, 357 little shoots came up, and that actually 295 of these were destroyed by slugs and insects.

Now I do not mean to say, that we can each of us be another Darwin if we choose to take the trouble; for a great naturalist much not only have eyes, but very special gifts to know how to make the best possible use of them. But I do want you to understand, that for all of us the world will be a much richer and more beautiful place, if we go about trying to see the many interesting things that are only waiting to show themselves to us.

When Darwin was in South America, (for the "Beagle" sailed round that great continent) he found out much that was interesting about Ostriches, and yet not more than other people might have done, if they had taken the same pains to ask about the birds, and to notice their ways.

He found, that although ostriches live on vegetable matter, such as roots and grass, they would often go down at low water to the shore to feed on small fish, which they could catch there. The ostrich is shy and solitary in its habits, and although it can run very fast, it is quite easily caught by the Indians of South America with the help of the "Bolas." These are two heavy balls, or round stones covered with leather, joined together by a thin plaited thong, about eight feet long. They can be swung round any animal with great force, and the balls keep the noose firm, Once when Darwin was amusing himself by practising the use of these Bolas, he managed to entangle the balls round the leg of his own horse, which being an old and practised animal knew what it meant, and fortunately did not kick. But the Gauchos, who are the countrymen of the South American provinces, roared with laughter, and said they had seen every sort of animal caught, but had never before seen a man caught by himself.

When horsemen are hunting the ostrich, they approach the birds in a semicircle, and this so confuses them, that they do not know which way to escape, When they start running they expand their wings, like a ship making all sail. They can also swim, and take quite readily to the water, but go slowly with their necks stretched in front, and very little of their bodies appearing above the water. Darwin heard that the birds were often seen swimming from island to island on the coast, and that they ran into the water both when driven down to a point and likewise of their own accord when not frightened. He himself saw some ostriches swim across a wide and rapid river called the Santa Cruz.

The ostrich gives out a peculiar, deep-toned, hissing note, and when Darwin heard it for the first time, he tells us he was standing in the midst of some sand-hillocks, and he thought the noise was made by a wild beast, so unlike a bird was it--a sound he says "that one cannot tell whence it comes or from how far distant."

The cock bird is easily known from the hen, because it is larger and darker coloured, and has a bigger head. In September and October, when Darwin was at a place called Bahi Blanca, (which you will find quite easily on a map of South America) he found great numbers of eggs all over the country. When they lie scattered and single, they are never hatched, but when gathered together in a shallow hollow in the ground, a nest is formed. Darwin saw four nests, and three of these held twenty-two eggs each, and the fourth twenty seven, so you can see the ostriches expect good large families. Each egg is said to equal in weight eleven hens' eggs - the food obtained by Darwin therefore from a single nest was as much as 297 hens' eggs would have given.

Curiously enough , it is not the mother-hen that sits on the eggs; but in this family of birds the cock hatches them, and goes about with the young ostriches for some time after they come out of the shell. When pursued by hunters, the father of a brood of ostriches has been know to fling himself on the ground and pretend to be wounded, in order to distract attention from his little ones.

Darwin himself nearly rode over an ostrich's nest before he saw it , for the father-bird sits so close on the eggs that he is not easily seen. At such times, when they are disturbed in their duties, they are sometimes fierce and even dangerous, and they have been known to attack a man on horseback, trying to kick and leap on him. An old man was pointed out to Darwin who had been much terrified by an ostrich chasing him.

Another queer arrangement that the ostriches have, is for several hen-birds to share one nest between them, and this is taken care of by one cock. The reason for this is, that the ostriches lay their eggs with long intervals of time in between, and so if one hen waited to make a nest for herself, her first eggs might become addled before a sufficient number were gathered together. But as a good many hens join together, their eggs can be hatched in good time and without delay.

I hope everyone who reads or hears this lesson about ostriches, will try to see some picture of the bird, which is a fine looking creature, and when standing in flocks on rising ground and visible against the clear sky as Darwin tells us he saw them in South America, present a very noble appearance.

Typed by Rondalyno, Sep. 2024