The Romans highly esteemed the flesh of the Ostrich, and the pseudo-Emperor Firmius is said to have devoured an entire bird at one meal; the brain was regarded as a choice delicacy, and to provide the Emperor Heliogabalus with a sufficient supper of this luxurious diet, six hundred Ostriches, we are told, lost their lives. They were also introduced into the Circus, and upon one occasion no less than one thousand of them, together with a number of other animals, fell victims to the cruel thirst for excitement that debased the populace of Rome. In all parts of Southern and Central Africa, the flesh, feathers, and eggs of the Ostrich are highly esteemed, and form most valuable articles of traffic. A skin is in some parts worth from forty to one hundred dollars, but the Arabs are in the habit of thinning the feathers so that the trader rarely obtains a specimen on which this tax has not been levied. Anderson describes a foot chase of these birds, witnessed by himself, on the banks of Lake Ngami. On this occasion the flock was entirely surrounded, and the terrified birds driven with loud cries and a variety of strange noises into the water. Moffat also gives an amusing account of another mode adopted by the Bushmen for their destruction. A skin is stuffed with straw so as to form a kind of saddle, and covered with feathers; this is placed upon a man's head, his legs are painted white, and with the head and neck of an Ostrich mounted upon a stick in one hand and his gun in the other, he steals amidst an unsuspecting party, and by imitating their gestures so completely deceives them as to his identity, that they make no attempt to avoid the treacherous intruder. Amongst the many ways employed to cook Ostrich eggs, Burchell mentions that the Hottentots prepare them by boring a small hole at one end; into this they insert a thin twig and stir the contents briskly over a fire of hot ashes; when thus prepared they are excellent.
The NANDUS (Rhea), as the American representatives of the Ostrich are called, closely resemble their African brothers in general formation, but have a somewhat shorter wing, and the foot furnished with three toes. The bill is flat, of the same length as the head, broad at its base, and rounded at its tip, and very similar to that of the Ostrich. The toes are moderately long, connected by a skin at their base, and armed with straight sharp claws, which are compressed at their sides, bluntly rounded at their upper surface, and sharply ridged beneath. The wings are furnished with long plumes and terminated by a spur; the tail-feathers are entirely wanting. The region of the eye, cheek-stripes, and a ring covered with bristles that encircles the ear, are unfeathered and covered with a wrinkled skin; the feathers on the head and throat are small, narrow, and pointed; those on the rump are large, broad, and rounded with a soft flowing web; the eyelids are furnished with large stiff bristles. The male and female are almost alike in colour, but differ in size. We are now acquainted with three members of the above group.
THE TRUE NANDU, OR AMERICAN OSTRICH.
The TRUE NANDU, or AMERICAN OSTRICH (Rhea Americana), has the plumage on the crown of the head, upper throat, nape, and upper breast, and the bristles on the cheek-stripes of a blackish hue; the centre of the throat is yellow, the rest of the neck and cheeks are light lead-grey, and the back, sides of the breast, and wings brownish grey; the other portions of the under side are dirty white. The eyes are pearl-grey, the bare parts of the face flesh-colour; the beak is greyish brown, and the foot grey. The female is distinguishable by the paler tints of her neck and breast. An old female measured by the Prince von Wied was fifty-two inches and two-thirds in length, and seven feet across the span of the wings.
AN OSTRICH HUNT.
