This bird is a native of Africa, and is so tall that when it holds up its head it is seven or eight feet in height. The head is very small in comparison with the body, being hardly bigger than one of the toes, and is covered, as well as the neck, with a kind of down, or thin-set hair, instead of feathers. The sides and thighs are entirely bare and flesh-coloured. The lower part of the neck, where the feathers begin, is white. The wings are very short in proportion to the size of the bird, and in fact are too small to enable it to fly; but when it runs, which it does with a strange jumping kind of motion, it raises its short wings and holds them quivering over its back, where they seem to serve as a kind of sail to gather the wind, and carry the bird onwards. The speed which it will thus attain is enormous. The swiftest greyhound cannot overtake it; and indeed an Arab on his horse cannot hope to capture an ostrich without having recourse to stratagem. He dexterously throws a stick between its legs as it runs, and so tripping it up, is enabled to secure it.
In its flight it spurns the pebbles behind it like shot against the pursuer. And this is not their only mode of annoyance. They have been known to attack men with their claws, with which they are able to strike with terrific force. The feathers of the back in the cock are coal black, in the hen only dusky, and so soft that they resemble a kind of wool. The tail is thick, bushy, and round; in the cock whitish, in the hen dusky, with white tops. These are the feathers so generally in requisition to decorate the head-dress of ladies and the helmets of warriors.
The Ostrich swallows anything that presents itself, leather, glass, iron, bread, hair, &c., but the old notion that the Ostrich could digest metals is certainly incorrect. An Ostrich in the Zoological Gardens in the Regent’s Park was killed by swallowing a lady’s parasol.
“O’er the wild waste the stupid Ostrich strays
In devious search, to pick a scanty meal,
Whose fierce digestion gnaws the temper’d steel.”
Mickle’s Lusiad.
They are polygamous birds, one male being generally seen with two or three, and sometimes with five, females. The female Ostrich, after depositing her eggs in the sand, trusts them to be hatched by the heat of the climate; in the Book of Job there is a beautiful passage relating to this habit of the Ostrich, “which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in the dust; and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them. She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers. Her labour is in vain; without fear, because God hath deprived her of wisdom; neither has he imparted to her understanding. What time she lifteth up her head on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.” It appears, however, that the female Ostrich sits upon her eggs like other birds, although generally at night only, and brings up her young. The eggs are as large as a young child’s head, with a hard stony shell, and one has been known to weigh upwards of three pounds. The time of incubation is six weeks. That Ostriches have great affection for their offspring may be inferred from the assertion of Professor Thunberg, who says that he once rode past the place where a hen Ostrich was sitting in her nest, when the bird sprang up and pursued him, evidently with a view to prevent his noticing her eggs or young. Every time he turned his horse towards her she retreated ten or twelve paces, but as soon as he rode on again she pursued him till he had got to a considerable distance from the place where he had started her. In the tropical regions, some persons breed Ostriches in flocks, for they may be tamed with very little trouble. When M. Adanson was at Podar, a French factory on the southern bank of the river Niger, two young but full-grown Ostriches, belonging to the factory, afforded him a very amusing sight. They were so tame that two little blacks mounted both together on the back of the largest. No sooner did he feel their weight than he began to run as fast as possible, and carried them several times round the village, and it was impossible to stop him otherwise than by obstructing the passage. This sight pleased M. Adanson so much that he wished it to be repeated, and, to try their strength, directed a full-grown negro to mount the smaller, and two others the larger of the birds. This burden did not seem at all disproportioned to their strength. At first they went at a tolerably sharp trot, but when they became a little heated they expanded their wings, as though to catch the wind, and moved with such fleetness that they scarcely seemed to touch the ground. The foot of the Ostrich has only two toes, one of which is extremely large and strong.
