I need'nt tell you I'm an Ostrich, for my picture speaks for itself. I'm a
native of South America, but members of my family have been caught and
taken to the United States, so you have seen some of them, probably, in a
"Zoo."
We are swift-footed and wary birds, but unfortunately have no presence of
mind, so that when danger threatens us we become confused, run this way and
that way, till the hunter comes up and with gun or "bolas" brings us to the
ground.
If your legs and neck were as long as mine, and an Indian should fling
around you a cord with a ball at each end and get your legs all tangled up,
wouldn't you tumble to the ground, too? Of course you would. That is the
way they catch us with a "bolas."
I think we ought to be called "ship of the desert" as well as the camel,
for when the wind blows, we expand our great wings, and running against it,
like a vessel under full sail, go skimming along, happy as a bird, in
truth.
You can never see us do that unless you come to South America. In captivity
we act differently, you know. Maybe you have seen us, when in an inclosure,
holding our wings from our bodies and running up and down as though we were
being chased, appearing greatly alarmed. Well, that is all fun. We have to
do something to while the time away. Then, too, that is as near as we can
come to "sailing" as we did when wild and free.
You have heard so much about the mother-bird sitting on the nest, that I am
sure you will be interested in seeing a _father_ who broods the eggs and
hatches out the little ones. I have five wives. They all lay their eggs in
one and the same nest, which is a hollow pit scraped out by their feet, the
earth heaped up around to form a sort of wall. They lay the eggs, I have
said, sometimes thirty in a nest, and I--well, I do the rest.
We are dangerous fellows if disturbed when brooding; have been known to
attack a man on horseback, trying to kick and leap on him. Our kick is no
love-tap, let me tell you, but being so powerful we can easily kill a man.
When startled, or angry, we utter a kind of grunt as a warning; if it is
not heeded, we then hiss sharply, draw back our head, and get ready to
strike.
[Illustration: BAY BREASTED WARBLER.]
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