Folio 41r - the cock, continued. De strucione; the ostrich.
yet they are ignorant of their duties under the law of God. They sit and say nothing; they attend to their own spiritual nourishment, but they do not lead the flock committed to them to the green pastures of eternity. Let them take care, therefore, those who are endowed with understanding and do not use it to preach the word of God, and those who say nothing because they do not know what to say, lest like the cock they fall from their perch. Eli often reprimanded his sons, but because he did not reinforce his rebukes with his hand, he fell from his seat and broke his neck. Before he died he witnessed the death of his sons and learned that the ark of the Lord had been captured by another tribe (see Samuel 1, 2:22-25; 4:18). Of the ostrich There is an animal called assida which the Greeks call stratocamelon, but Latin-speakers strucio, the ostrich. It has wings but does not fly, and its feet are like those of the camel. When the time comes for it to lay eggs, it raises its eyes to the sky and looks to see if the star called Vergiliae, the Pleiades, has appeared, for it will not lay its eggs until that star has risen. When the ostrich sees the star, around the month of June, it digs in the ground, deposits its eggs in the hole it has made and covers them with sand. When it gets up from the hole, it immediately forgets the eggs and never returns to them. The effect of the calm, mild air seems to be that the sand in the summer heat hatches the eggs, bringing forth the chicks. If, therefore, the ostrich knows its time and forgets its young, and pursues heavenly things to the exclusion of earthly ones, how much more, O man, should you strive for the prize of the summons from on high, you for whom God was made man, to deliver you from the power of darkness
Folio 41r - the cock, continued. De strucione; the ostrich. | The Aberdeen Bestiary | The University of Aberdeen