(_one third Nat. size_)]
"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.
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.