114 



THE MUSEUM. 



posed of but which he has never paid 

 for. He is now a fugutive from jus- 

 tice, and if any of our patrons learn of 

 his whereabouts they will confer a 

 favor upon us as well as the United 

 States Attorneys by writing or wiring 

 us promptly. 



The Ostrich. 



The other day I saw the skeleton of 

 an Ostrich in the Yale Museum, which 

 has led me to write something about 

 this wonderful bird. The Ostrich is 

 the largest of all birds now existing, 

 being from six to eight feet in height 

 to the top of its head, and an adult 

 male weighing from two to three hun- 

 dred pounds. The male is rather larger 

 than the female. The head and upper 

 part of th^ neck are scantily covered 

 with a thin down, through which the skin 

 is visible. The young have the head and 

 neck clothed with feathers. The gen- 

 eral plumage is glossy black in the 

 adult male, dark gray in the female 

 and young, with a slight sprinkling of 

 white feathers; the long plumes of the 

 wings and tail are white, occasionally 

 marked with black. On each wing 

 are two plumeless shafts, not unlike 

 porcupine's quills. The inner toe is 

 very large, about seven inches long, 

 and its claw hoof-like. 



While the sternum is destitute of a 

 keel, and the muscles which move the 

 wings are comparatively weak, those 

 which move the legs are of prodigious 

 strength, so that the Ostrich is not on- 

 ly capable of running with great speed, 

 but with striking such a blow with its 

 foot as to make it too formidable for 

 the leopard and other large beasts of 

 prey to assail it. It has been known 

 to rip open a dog by a single stroke, 



and a man is recorded to have suffered 

 the same fate. 



The eyes of the Ostrich are large, 

 and the lids are furnished with lashes. 

 Its sight is keen, so that it descries ob- 

 jects at a great distance in the open 

 desert. 



The Ostrich shuns the presence of 

 man, but is often to be seen in the 

 near proximity to herds of zebras, 

 quaggas, giraffes, antelopes and other 

 quadrupeds. It is gregarious, although 

 the flocks are not generally very large. 



The Ostrich is polygamous, one 

 male usually appropriating to himself, 

 when he can, from two to seven wives, 

 which seem to make their nest in 

 common, scooping a mere hole in the 

 sand for this purpose. Each female is 

 supposed to lay about ten eggs. The 

 eggs are all placed on end in the nest, 

 which often contains a large number, 

 whilst around it eggs are generally to 

 be found scattered on the sand. 



By a remarkable instinct the Ostrich 

 sits upon the eggs by night, when the 

 cold would be too great for them, and 

 leaves them to the sun's heat during 

 the day. 



It feeds exclusively on vegetable 

 substances, its food consisting in great 

 part of grasses and their seeds; so that 

 its visits are much dreaded by the cul- 

 tivators of the soil in the vicinity of its 

 haunts, a flock of Ostriches soon mak- 

 ing terrible devastation of a field of • 

 corn. 



The speed of the Ostrich, when it 

 first sets out, is supposed to be not 

 less than sixty miles an hour, but it 

 does not seem to be capable of keep- 

 ing up this speed for a long time. It 

 is successfully hunted by men on horse- 

 back, who take advantage of its habit 

 of running in a curve, instead of a 



