BIOGRAPHY OF AN OSTRICH

Ozzie, the first to hatch from the ""top hen's"" eggs in the sandy nest his father has created, is already a foot tall when he begins to walk, soon wandering in flocks that move with the vegetarian antelopes, zebras and giraffes, eating stones to aid his digestion. Ozzie watches his father try to distract a lioness bent on stealing a chick and later, with the hens' help, chase away a predatory jackal. The life cycle is completed when Ozzie is three and leaves the flock with a young female he has been protecting, making a nest for her eggs and winning her with a razzle-dazzle courtship display. Ozzie sounds a lot like Litwin's Ostrich (KR, 1973) but the look is different, Stahl's illustrations being appreciatively elegant fine line drawings on pleasantly muddy flat color, whereas Litwin gets closer to his subject with a camera.