364 THE STORY OF THE OSTRICH. 



much for a single man to eat at a meal, and in one instance two men 

 finished five in the course of an afternoon. The approved method of dress- 

 ing ostrich eggs is to set the tgg upright on the fire, break a round hole at 

 the top, squeeze a forked stick into the aperture, leaving the stem protrud- 

 ing, and then to twist the stick rapidly between the hands so as to beat up 

 the contents of the ^gg while it is being cooked. Within each egg there 

 are generally some little smooth bean-shaped stones, which are composed 

 of the same substance that forms the shell. 



In South America the place of the ostriches is taken by an allied group 

 of birds known as rheas, or, as they are often termed, American ostriches. 

 The wings are proportionately longer, and are covered with long, slender 

 plumes. The best known, and at the same time the most abundant, of the 

 three species by which the single genus is now represented, is the common 

 rhea, inhabiting the pampas of Argentina and Patagonia. This species is 

 far inferior in size to the ostrich, but it is the largest of the three. It is 

 generally seen in pairs, though it sometimes associates together in flocks 

 of twenty or thirty in number. Like all the members of this group, it is 

 swift-footed and wary, but possesses so little presence of mind that it be- 

 comes confused when threatened with danger, runs aimlessly first in one 

 direction, and then in another, thus giving time for the hunter to come up 

 and shoot it, or bring it to the ground with his "bolas" — a terrible weapon, 

 consisting of a cord with a heavy ball at each end, which is flung at the 

 bird and winds its coils around its neck and legs, so as to entangle it and 

 bring it to the ground. 



Although now confined to Africa, Syria, Arabia and Mesopotamia — and 

 becoming every year scarcer in the three last-mentioned countries: — there is 

 a probability that ostriches formerly existed within the historic period, in parts 

 of Central Asia and possibly in Baluchistan, since there are several allusions 

 to birds which can scarcely be anything else than ostriches in various ancient 

 w^ritings. Quite apart, however, from this, the evidence of its fossilized re- 

 mains shows that an extinct species of ostrich, nearly allied tO' the existing 

 kind, once inhabited North-Western India, and a petrified egg from the 

 Province of Cherson in Russia, points to> the former existence of these birds 

 in that country. Originally it is probable that the ostrich ranged in suitable 

 localities from Senegambia in the west, through Southern Morocco', Algeria 

 and Egypt, to Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia in the east; while in the 

 other direction it extended from' Algeria through Central and Eastern Africa. 



