SOME RESULTS OF OSTRICH I NVESTUiATK )XS. 25I 



to aggression at the breeding season, and many a prancing cock, 

 in the full glory of its sexual vigour, has stricken terror into the 

 heart of the hai)less person who has, unwittingly and unarmed, 

 intruded on its territory, whether veld or camp, and many a 

 violent kick has been received from its flattened foot, or cut from 

 its sharp powerful claw, resulting in serious injury or even 

 fatality. 



The domesticated ostrich also affords much that is attractive 

 to the student of animal behaviour. Along with other old-time 

 African animals, such as the giraffe, rhinoceros, and hippopota- 

 mus, it combines a maximum of bulk with a minimum of brain. 

 Like these and the big Mesozoic saurians and early Tertiary 

 mammals, its nervous activities are mainly reflex in character, 

 not mental. If intelligence be defined as the abihty to profit by 

 experience, then the ostrich is deplorably lacking in this desirable 

 qualit}-. ICven in such remote times as those of the patriarch 

 Job, aspersions were cast at the mentality of the bird, for do we 

 not read: "God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath He 

 imparted to her understanding." 



Its oft-quoted proverbial stupidity in burying its head 

 in the sand when pursued, believing itself thereby hidden 

 from view, has, however, no foundation in fact, unless 

 the instinct of death-feigning in the chick, when on 

 sudden alarm it flops down, with its long neck and 

 head prone on the ground, can be regarded as the origin of the 

 opprol)riuni. In han^lling the l)ird. as during the operations of 

 clipping and quilling, the eyes are hooded, and its nervous rest- 

 lessness is thereby overcome. 



Personal attachments and responsiveness, such as are 

 exhibited by all domesticated animals toward those who care for 

 them, are wholly lacking in the ostrich. A glimmering of distinc- 

 tion between the familiar and the unfamiliar person, and a feeble 

 tendency to the formation of the simplest habits, such as coming 

 at call to be fed, or travelling more readily along frequented 

 directions, represent practically all the education of which the 

 bird is capable. Attachment between mates, even after being 

 " camped oft" for a season, seems non-existent ; and the regard 

 ;ind care of oft'spring have manifestations of only the sini])lest 

 character. 



Genetics of the Ostrich. 



The domesticated ostriches in South Africa to-day are such 

 as have been produced by gradual selection during the 50 years 

 or so since ostrich farming was first established at the Cape. 

 The foundation stocks naturally consisted of wild birds, and the 

 best of these and their progeny have been employed in building 

 up the present superior strains. The ultimate object in breeding 

 is simple and well defined. The farmer selects only for feather 

 production ; no other character of the bird is taken into account, 

 as anv weakness in constitution or breeding is scarcely observable. 



