666 OUSEL 



Struthionidx, has been often used in a more general sense by system- 

 atists, even to signify the whole of the RATlTiE.^ The most 

 obvious distinctive character presented by the Ostrich is the pres- 

 ence of two toes only, the third and fourth, on each foot, — a 

 character absolutely peculiar to the genus Struthio.^ 



The great mercantile value of Ostrich -feathers, and the in- 

 creasing difficulty, due to the causes already mentioned, of pro- 

 curing them from wild birds, has led to the formation in the Cape 

 Colony and elsewhere of numerous " Ostrich-farms," on which these 

 birds are kept in confinement, and at regular times deprived of 

 their plumes. In favourable localities and with judicious manage- 

 ment these establishments are understood to yield very considerable 

 profit; while, as the ancient taste for wearing Ostrich -feathers 

 shews no sign of falling off, but seems rather to be growing, it is 

 probable that the practice will yet be largely extended.^ 



OUSEL or OUZEL, Anglo-Saxon Osle, equivalent of the German 

 Amsel (a form of the word found in several old English books, and 

 perhaps yet surviving in some parts of the country), apparently the 

 ancient name for what is now more commonly known as the BlaC!K- 

 BIRD, the Turdus merula of ornithologists, but at the present day 

 not often applied to that species, though, as will immediately be 

 seen, used in a compound form for two others. The adult male of 

 this beautiful and well-known bird scarcely needs any other descrip- 

 tion than that of the poet : — 



" The Ousel-cock, so black of hue, 

 With orange-tawny bill." 



— Midsummer Night's Dream, act iii. sc. 1. 



But the female is of an uniform umber-brown above, has the chin, 

 throat and upper part of the breast orange-brown, with a few dark 

 streaks, and the rest of the plumage beneath of a hair-brown. The 



1 At one time it was not uncommon to include the Bustards among the 

 StruthionidsR ! 



^ Remains of a true Ostrich have been recognized from the Sivalik formation 

 in India, and the petrified egg of an apparently allied form, Struthiolithus, has 

 been found in the south of Russia (see Fossil Birds, p. 285). 



^ Among the more important treatises on this bird may be mentioned : — E. 

 D' Alton, Die Skelete der Straussartigen Vogel abgeiiJdet und heschriehen, folio, 

 Bonn: 1827 ; P. L. Sclater, "On the Struthioas Birds living in the Zoological 

 Society's Menagerie," Trans. Zool. Soc. iv. p. 353, containing the finest representa- 

 tion (pi. 67), by Mr. Wolf, ever published of the male Struthio camelus ; 

 Prof. Mivart, " On the Axial Skeleton of the Ostrich," o'p. cit. viii. p. 385 ; Prof. 

 Haughton, " On the Muscular Mechanism of the Leg of the Ostrich, Ann. Nat. 

 Hist. ser. 3, .kv. pp. 262-272 — a subject more fully treated by M. Alix in his 

 Essai sur Vappareil locomoteur des Oiseaux (Paris : 1874) ; and Prof Macalister, 

 " On the Anatomy of the Ostrich," Proc. B. Irish Acad. ix. pp. 1-24. 



