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You might like to read a published facsimile of a bestiary, Bestiarty Being an English Version of the Bodleian Library, Oxford M.S. Bodley 764 with all the original miniatures reproduced in facsimile. Trans. by Richard Barber, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. 1993. Ostrich p. 137: ...when the time comes for it to lay its eggs, it lifts its eyes to heaven and looks to see if the stars called the Pleiades have appeared: it will not lay its eggs until these stars have appeared. When, in about the month of June, it sees those stars, it digs in the earth, lays its eggs and covers them in sand. When it gets up from that place, it at once forgets them and never returns to its eggs....If the ostrich thus knows its proper time, and forgets its offspring, laying aside earthyly things to folow the course of heaven, how much more, O man, should you turn to the prize of the summons from on high...p. 174 The duck,'anas' in Latin, gets its name from its love of swimming (natandi)....All species of birs are born twoice. For first the egg is born, and then the chick is formed by the warmth of the mother's body, and given life. Hope thisis of some help! Marijim Thoene %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%