STORIES A I] OUT BIRDS. 



sidered a great dainty. But they are very careful how they set about the 

 task of robbing the nest. They choose the time when the mother ostrich is 

 away, and then they take a long stick and push the eggs out of the hole. If 

 they touched any of them with their fingers, the ostrich would find it out in a 

 minute, and go into a great rage. She would break all the eggs that were 

 left with her hoof-like feet, and never lay in that place again. Sometimes a 

 number of mother ostriches will lay their eggs in the same nest. 



The flesh of such a great bird as the ostrich is, as you may think, not 

 ver}'- tender. It was considered unclean by the Jews, and the Arabs, for the 

 same reason, will not touch it. But when Rome was at the height of her 

 luxury, people hardly knew what fresh dishes to invent, and a dish of ostriches' 

 brains was as great a luxury, and more difficult to get, than peacocks' 

 tongues. A gluttonous and cruel emperor had as many as six hundred 

 ostriches killed to make one dish ! And we are told of another emperor a 

 story that we can hardly believe. It is said that he ate a whole ostrich — 

 cooked, we may be sure, in a very delicate manner — at one meal ! 



In some parts of Africa there are tribes of men who are glad to eat the 

 ostriches, not from gluttony, but because they can get very little else. They 

 keep them as we do cattle, and make them quite tame. The ostrich is by 

 nature gentle, though it is so large, and soon makes himself contented near 

 the dwelling of his master. Sometimes his master rides upon him, and takes 

 a journey, not on his camel, but on his ostrich. 



A traveller was once staying in a village where there were two tame 

 ostriches. Two little boys used to mount on the back of one of them and 

 have a ride. The ostrich would run round and round the village, and never 

 seemed inclined to stop. 



At first his pace was a trot, but, by degrees, he expanded his wings and 

 ran very fast indeed, scarcely seeming to touch the ground. No race-horse 

 in England could have kept up wiih him, though the ostrich would have got 

 tired very much the soonest. 



The beautiful feathers of the ostrich arc so admired, that great pains 

 and trouble are taken to procure them. 



The Arab comes with his swift horse in search of the ostriches. 



A flock of them are quietly feeding together on the plain. If it is 

 mid-day, they strut about, fanning their wings as if for coolness. 



When they perceive the enemy they begin to run, at first gently, for 



