262 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 
its wings, like two arms, keeping alternate motion 
with its feet. It seldom runs in a direct line, but, 
like the hare, doubles, or, rather, courses in a circu 
lar manner, while the hunters, taking. the diameter 
or tracing a smaller circle, meet the bird at unex- 
pected turns, and with less fatigue to the horses. 
This chase is often continued for a day or two, 
when the poor ostrich is starved out and exhaust- 
ed, and, finding all power of escape impossible, it 
endeavours to hide itself from the enemies it can- 
not avoid, running into some thicket, or burying its 
head in the sand; the hunters then rush in at full 
speed, leading as much as possible against the wind, 
and kill the bird with clubs, lest the feathers should 
be soiled with blood. 
M. Adanson saw two tame ostriches which had 
been kept two years at the factory of Podor, on 
the south bank of the Niger. ‘*They were so 
tame,” he says, “that two little blacks mounted 
both together on the back of the largest: no sooner 
did he feel their weight than he began to run as fast 
as ever he could, till he carried them several times 
round the village, and it was impossible to stop him 
otherwise than by obstructing the passage. This 
sight pleased me so well that I would have it re- 
peated, and, to try their strength, I made a full- 
grown negro mount the smallest and two others 
the largest. This burden did not seem to me at all 
disproportioned to their strength. At first they 
went a moderate gallop; when they were heated a 
little they expanded their wings as if it were to 
catch the wind, and they moved with such fleetness _ 
that they seemed to be off the ground. Everybody 
must some time or other have seen a partridge run, 
consequently must know there is no man what- 
ever able to keep up with it, and it is easy to ima- 
gine thatif this bird had a longer step its speed 
would be considerably augmented. The ostrich 
moves like the partridge, with both these advanta- 
