This habit is not very uncommon with the Gallinaceae, and throws some light on the singular instinct of the ostrich.

In this family several hen birds unite and lay first a few eggs in one nest and then in another; and these are hatched by the males.

This instinct may probably be accounted for by the fact of the hens laying a large number of eggs, but, as with the cuckoo, at intervals of two or three days.

The instinct, however, of the American ostrich, as in the case of the Molothrus bonariensis, has not as yet been perfected; for a surprising number of eggs lie strewed over the plains, so that in one day's hunting I picked up no less than twenty lost and wasted eggs.