1 82 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY 



and the legs quite naked. The body feathers are grey in the 

 hen and black in the cock; those of the tail and abortive wings are the 

 beautiful white plumes that have been prized as ornaments from the 

 earliest times. 



In their native haunts the ostriches live in flocks or, especially in 

 the breeding season, small groups of one male and several females. 

 These females all commonly lay in one nest or hole in the sand until 

 30 or more eggs are collected; the eggs are incubated partly by the 

 heat of the sun, partly by the adult birds, especially the male. The 

 eggs hatch in 6 or 8 weeks, the speckled young being as large, at 

 hatching, as good-sized fowls. 



The male acts as guardian to the flock and is said to be able to kill 

 a man or even a horse with a forward or sidewise kick of its formidable 

 two-toed foot. Under domestication they become gentle, but each 

 ostrich farm is apt to have a big male that is said to be " very dangerous" 

 and visitors are warned to keep at a safe distance; such an animal adds 

 to the interest of the exhibit just as a "man-killer" lion does to a travel- 

 ling circus. 



They are, like most birds, very wary, which, added to their speed, 

 which is said to exceed that of a swift horse, makes them difficult to 

 capture. They are sometimes run down by a relay of horses, though 

 their habit of running in a curve often makes it possible to cut across 

 and head them off. Traps, pitfalls, lassoes, poisoned arrows and other 

 methods were used by the natives to capture them. The old story of 

 their sticking their heads in the sand and thinking themselves hidden 

 is, of course, without foundation in observed fact. 



While their natural food is largely vegetable they will eat practically 

 anything, including small stones to aid the gizzard in grinding the food. 

 A favorite pastime of visitors at some of the ostrich farms is to feed 

 oranges to the birds, who swallow them whole with ease, and the course 

 of the orange down the long oesophagus may be seen as a slowly moving 

 swelling on the animal's slender neck. This habit of eating anything 

 of suitable size for swallowing has doubtless been responsible for the 

 exaggerated ideas of the ostrich's phenominal powers of digestion. 

 Though they can exist for long periods without water, they drink 

 frequently when water is at hand and they are said to be fond of bathing 

 up to the neck in water. 



The flesh is but little used as food, but the eggs are often eaten, 



