OSTRICHES. 



127 



tage of when he was quietly feeding in a valley open at both ends, 

 A number of men would commence running, as if to cut off his 

 retreat from the end through which the wind came ; and although 

 he had the whole country hundreds of miles before him by going 



Fig. 163.— The Ostrich {Struthio Cameliis). 



to the other end, on he madly rushed to get past the men, and 

 so was speared : he never swerves from the course he once adopts, 

 but only increases his speed. When the ostrich is feeding, his 

 stride is from twenty to twenty-two inches, and when terrified, as 

 in the case noticed, it is from eleven and a half to thirteen or 

 fourteen feet in length. Only in one instance was I at all satisfied 

 of being able to count the rate of speed by a stop-watch, and, if I 

 am not mistaken, there were thirty steps in ten seconds: generally, 

 one's eye can no more follow the legs than it could the spokes of 

 a carriage-wheel in rapid motion. If we take the above number 

 and twelve feet stride as the average pace, we have a speed of 



