birds are allowed to eat as
much of this mixture as they like. Where the rocks, grass, and soil
contain alkaline salts in abundance, the birds require very little, if
any, artificial food, and they thrive, fatten, pair, and lay eggs in the
most satisfactory manner."

"According to the story books," said Harry, "the ostrich will eat
anything. But from what you say, Mr. Shaffner, it does not seem that
that is really the case."

"The ostrich has a very good appetite, I must say," was the reply, "and
so far as green things are concerned, he will eat almost anything;
lucerne, clover, wheat, corn, cabbage leaves, fruit, grain, and garden
vegetables are all welcome, and he eats a certain quantity of crushed
limestone and bones, and generally keeps a few pebbles in his stomach to
assist him in the process of digestion. If he sees a bright sparkling
stone on the ground, he is very apt to swallow it, and that reminds me
of a little incident about two years ago. An English gentleman was
visiting my place, and while he was looking around he came close up to
the fence of a paddock containing a number of ostriches. An ostrich was
on the other side of the fence and close to it. The gentleman had a
large diamond in his shirt front, and while he was looking at the bird,
the latter, with a quick movement of his head, wrenched the stone from
its setting and swallowed it. I see that none of you wear diamonds, and
so it is not necessary for me to repeat the caution which I have ever
since given to my diamond-wearing visitors."

"What became of the diamond?" Harry asked.

"Oh! my visitor bought the bird and had it killed, in order to get the
diamond back again. He found it safe in the creature's stomach, along
with several small stones. It was a particularly valuable gem, and the
gentleman had no idea of allowing the bird to keep it."

Ned wanted to know if ostriches lived in flocks like barnyard fowls, or
divided off into pairs like the majority of forest and field birds.

"That depends a great deal upon the farmer," Mr. Shaffner answered. "The
pairing season is in the month of July, which is equivalent to the
English January. Some farmers, when the pairing time approaches, put a
male and female bird together in a pen; some put two females with a
male, and very often a male bird has five hens in his family. The birds
run in pairs or flocks, as the case may be. In August, the hens begin to
lay, and continue to deposit eggs for a period