Cassell's book of birds; vol. 3

by Alfred Edmund Brehm

THE OSTRICH (Struthio camelus).

The OSTRICH (Struthio camelus) is at once recognisable by its very powerful body, long and partially bare throat, and small flat head. The moderately long, depressed, and straight bill is rounded at its extremity, and has the open longitudinal nostrils prolonged nearly half-way down the beak. The large brilliant eyes are protected by lashes, and the open uncovered ears lined with a hairy growth. The long legs are bare or only overspread with a few bristles on the thighs, while the tarsi are covered with large scales, and the feet furnished with but two toes: the innermost of which is armed with a large, broad, blunt claw. The wings are furnished with waving plumes, and two bare shafts, not unlike porcupine's quills. In this bird the sternum has no keel, but is simply convex, shield-like, and covered with a callous pad or elastic cushion, having a hard rough surface unclothed with feathers, on which the birds support their bodies when reposing on the ground. The thick curly plumage differs in its coloration according to the sex of the bird. In the male the small rump-feathers are coal-black, the flowing wing and tail feathers of a dazzling whiteness. The colour of the female is a brownish grey, mingled with dirty white. The young resemble the mother after the first moulting. The height of the fully-grown male is eight feet, and his length from the tip of the beak to the end of the tail at least six feet; the weight of the body is about one hundredweight and a half. These large and remarkable birds inhabit the vast deserts and barren steppes of Southern Africa, and were formerly far more numerous than they are now. Lichtenstein, who wrote at the commencement of this century, mentions having seen flocks containing as many as 300 individuals in the country near the Cape, but at the present day they are usually met with in small families, consisting of but one male and from two to four females. In such countries as are not subjected to any violent changes of temperature, they remain from one year to another within a certain limited district, provided it affords them ample means of subsistence, and a large supply of water, which is indispensable. As regards the development of their senses, these birds are very unequally gifted; their power of sight is extensive, whilst their taste and hearing are comparatively deficient. The cry of the Ostrich, which is often uttered at night, is a loud, dolorous, and stridulous sound, and in the stillness of the desert plains may be heard to a great distance. Some have compared it to the roar of the lion, but Dr. Tristram, from whom we borrow the following account of the habits of this bird, describes it as more like the hoarse lowing of an ox in pain. The note of the Ostrich during the day or when feeding he describes as being very different—a sort of hissing chuckle. The beauty of its wings and tail-feathers, which are as highly prized by the Bedouins for the decoration of tombs and of the tents and spear-heads of their sheikhs as they are for head-dresses among Western nations, have caused its chase to be a favourite employment of all desert tribes, and good skins fetch very high prices in the native markets. This bird never approaches settled habitations, and very rarely cultivated lands; it usually selects an open space where it is safe from surprise, and where by its fleetness it "scorneth the horse and his rider."

Plate 30. Cassell's Book of Birds

HASTINGS TRAGOPAN ____ CERIORNIS MELANOCEPHALUS

(one third Nat. size)

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"The capture of the Ostrich is the greatest feat of hunting to which the Arab sportsman aspires, and in richness of booty it ranks next to the plunder of a caravan. So wary is the bird, and so open are the vast plains over which it roams, that no ambuscades or artifices can be employed, and the vulgar resource of dogged perseverance is the only mode of pursuit. The horses to be employed undergo a long and painful training: abstinence from water and a diet of dry dates being considered the best means for strengthening their wind. The hunters set forth with small skins of water strapped under their horses' bellies, and a scanty allowance of food for four or five days distributed judiciously about their saddles. The Ostrich generally lives in companies of from four to six individuals, which do not appear to be in the habit, under ordinary circumstances, of wandering more than twenty or thirty miles from their head-quarters. When descried, two or three of the hunters follow the herd, at a gentle gallop, endeavouring merely to keep the birds in sight without alarming them or driving them at full speed, when they would soon be lost to view. The rest of the pursuers leisurely proceed in a direction at right angles to the course which the Ostriches have taken, knowing by experience their habit of running in a circle. Posted on the best look-out they can find, they await for hours the anticipated route of the game, calculating upon intersecting their path. If fortunate enough to detect them, the relay sets upon the now fatigued flock, and frequently succeeds in running one or two down; though a horse or two generally falls exhausted in the pursuit."

The Ostrich when once taken offers no resistance beyond kicking out sideways. Its speed has been calculated, by Dr. Livingstone, at twenty-six miles an hour, and yet the South African Ostrich is smaller than the northern species; Dr. Tristram, who, in the Sahara, measured the stride of the latter when bounding at full speed, found it to be from twenty-two to twenty-eight feet. If Dr. Livingstone's calculation be at all correct, the speed of the Ostrich is unequalled by any other cursorial animal. Portions of plants, grass, seeds, and insects form the principal food of these birds, but nothing that they can by any possibility swallow seems to come amiss to them; even should the object be of such a nature as to be utterly indigestible by their stomachs. Brehm mentions that upon more than one occasion his bunch of keys was thus appropriated by an Ostrich, and cites an instance in which a great variety of small articles made of metal, such as coins, keys, nails, and bullets, together with a considerable quantity of gravel and pebbles, were found upon dissection in the stomach of a single individual. Small quadrupeds and birds they also enjoy amazingly, and an authority, quoted by Brehm, affirms that one of these voracious creatures that was kept about a farm-house, entered the yard, and seeing a fine broad of ducklings running about after their mother, coolly swallowed them one after the other with no more ceremony than if they had been so many oysters. Nor is the thirst of these birds less remarkable, for Anderson assures us that when engaged in drinking they seem so engrossed as to have neither eyes nor ears for anything around them; day by day the same spot is visited in order to obtain water, until regular beaten tracks are formed, that have often misled travellers in the African desert, and caused them to imagine they had discovered the footprints of man. The female Ostrich deposits her numerous eggs in a shallow hollow in the sand, only a few inches deep, but about one yard in diameter; round this a slight wall is scraped together, and against it the numerous eggs are placed upon end, in such a manner as to occupy the least possible space. Several females lay in the same spot, so that it is not uncommon to find as many as thirty, or, according to Livingstone, as forty-five eggs in one nest. During the night the male bird broods, whilst in the daytime the eggs are covered with sand and left exposed to the sun's rays for hours at a time. Several eggs usually lie scattered around the nest; these are supposed to be intended as food for such of the young as first emerge from the shell. Solitary eggs are also left lying at random all over the country, and are named by the Bechuans 'losetla.' It is from this habit, most probably, that want of parental instinct is laid to the charge of the Ostrich; moreover, it is certain that when surprised by man with their young, before the latter are able to run, the parent bird usually scuds off alone and leaves its offspring to their fate. To do otherwise would be self-sacrifice, as it is aware of its inability to defend itself or its poults, and on the open desert it cannot, like other cursorial birds, mislead the pursuer or conceal its brood in herbage. The young are hatched in six or seven weeks, and make their appearance covered, not with feathers, but with a bristle-like growth, somewhat resembling the prickles on the back of a hedgehog. From the day they quit the shell, they not only run easily, but are fully competent to pick up their food from the ground, and within a fortnight are "entirely self-dependent." The following anecdote illustrative of the affection occasionally displayed by the Ostrich for its little family is given by Anderson, who was an eye-witness on the occasion, he and his friend, Mr. Galton, having come upon a male and female escorting a brood of young ones of about the size of Barn-door Fowls:—"The moment the parent birds became aware of our intention, they set off at full speed, the female leading the way, the young following in her wake, and the cock, though at some little distance, bringing up the rear of the family party. It was very touching to observe the anxiety the old birds evinced for the safety of their progeny. Finding that we were quickly gaining upon them, the male at once slackened his pace and diverged somewhat from his course; but seeing that we were not to be diverted from our purpose, he again increased his speed, and with wings drooping so as almost to touch the ground, he hovered round us now in wide circles, and then decreasing the circumference till he came almost within pistol-shot, when he abruptly threw himself on the ground, and struggled desperately to regain his legs, as it appeared, like a bird that has been badly wounded. Having previously fired at him I really thought he was disabled, and made quickly towards him, but this was only a ruse on his part, for on my nearer approach he slowly rose, and began to run in an opposite direction to that of the female, who by this time was considerably ahead with her charge."

The eggs of the Ostrich are of an oval shape, and have a thick, glossy, yellowish white shell, marked with pale yellow. According to Hardy the weight of one fully equals that of twenty-four of the eggs laid by the Domestic Fowl. To travellers in the African deserts these huge eggs form a convenient and portable provision; their flavour is excellent, and the shell so thick that they keep perfectly fresh for a fortnight or three weeks. Tristram mentions having found Ostrich egg omelette a most valuable addition to his desert bill of fare. When two months old the young acquire a plumage similar to that of the adult female; this is retained by both sexes for two years, when the male exhibits black feathers and has attained his full size and strength. The young Ostrich is easily domesticated, and is often kept by the Arabs, living freely with the goats and camels, and showing no disposition to escape. In some villages they are a sort of public property and live in the bazaars, levying contributions for themselves from the fruit-stalls.