CHAPTER VI 



GIANTS AND DWARFS 



ALTHOUGH there are not the great differences 

 between the sizes of birds that we find among 

 beasts, there are enough to make the subject 

 of size interesting, for there is always an 

 attraction about something very big or very 

 small. It has long been known that the 

 ostrich is the biggest of all birds, and none of 

 the other giant birds, all of which, like the 

 ostrich, are runners and cannot fly, are nearly 

 so large, neither have any of them such hand- 

 some feathers as the ostrich bears in its wings 

 and tail the celebrated ostrich plumes. 



The true ostrich, as most people know, is 

 mostly an African bird, though it is also 

 found in Arabia and Syria, and since it has been 

 tamed and bred like cattle on farms, it has 

 been carried to many parts of the world. 

 The wild ostriches one hears about in South 



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