Bestiary The Aberdeen Bestiary

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Folio 41r Illustration detail

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f41r  initial illustration detail f41r Text: The ostrich. It has wings but does not fly and has feet like a camel. It looks for the Pleiades in the sky before laying its eggs in a hole in the sand. The eggs hatch while covered by warm sand. Illustration: One ostrich looks at a star in the margin while the other buries eggs in the sand with its beak. There is an attempt to make the claws look like camels' feet but otherwise the birds are not very realistic. They were common in north Africa until the nineteenth century.

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Historic Collections - University of Aberdeen - King's College - Aberdeen - AB24 3SW
Michael Arnott
m.arnott@aberdeen.ac.uk

University of Aberdeen