At all the three towns,
Sockna, Hoon, and Wadan, it is the practice to keep tame ostriches in
a stable, and in two years to take three cullings of the feathers.
Captain Lyon supposes that all the fine white ostrich feathers sent
to Europe are from tame birds, the wild ones being in general so
ragged and torn, that not above half a dozen perfect ones can be
found. The black, being shorter and more flexible, are generally
good. All the Arabs agree in stating, that the ostrich does not leave
its eggs to be hatched by the heat of the sun. The parent bird forms
a rough nest, in which she covers from fourteen to eighteen eggs, and
regularly sits on them, in the same manner as the common fowl does on
her chickens, the male occasionally relieving the female.[Footnote]
It is during the breeding season that the greatest numbers are
procured, the Arabs shooting the old ones on their nests.
[Footnote: There is one peculiarity attending the ostrich, which is,
that although the female lays from about twenty-five to thirty eggs,
yet she only sits upon about fifteen, throwing the remainder outside
the nest, where they remain until the young ones are hatched, and
these eggs form the first food of the young birds. - EDITOR.]
On the 22d April, Captain Lyon and his companions left Sockna, in
company with Sultan Mukni, for Mourzouk, which they entered upon the
4th May.
