6l c 2 BIRDS. 



day, the inhabitants of Nuinidia are said to tame them, in order 

 to live upon their flesh, and sell their feathers. Their eggs are 

 about thirty times heavier than those of our common hens, and furnish 

 a plentiful repast for eighteen men. Buffon, however, thinks those 

 writers guilty of exaggeration who have stated their weight at fifteen 

 pounds. 



The beauty of the plumage of the ostrich, particularly of the long 

 feathers that compose his wings and tail, is the chief reason why 

 man has been so active in pursuing him into deserts, at so much 

 expence and labour. The Arabs, who make a trade of killing these 

 birds, formerly converted their skins into a kind of cuirass and buck- 

 ler. The ancients used their plumes as ornaments for their helmets. 

 The ladies in the east make them still an ornament in their dress ; 

 and not long since, the fine gentlemen of our own country made use 

 of them in decorating their hats. In Turkey, the janissary, who 

 has signalized himself by some military achievement, is allowed to 

 assume them as a decoration to his turban ; and the sultan, in the 

 seraglio, when meditating conquests, and feats of a gentle nature, 

 puts them on, as the most irresistible ornament of his person. 



The spoils of the ostrich being thus a valuable article of com- 

 merce, the hunting of that bird is one of the most serious employ- 

 ments of the Arabs, who train the fleetest horses for the purpose. 

 Although the ostrich be far swifter than the best courser, yet, by 

 hunters on horseback, he is commonly taken ^ and, of all the vari- 

 eties of the chace, this is perhaps the most laborious. The Arab, 

 when mounted, still keeps the ostrich in view, without push- 

 ing him so close as to make him escape to the distant moun- 

 tains ; but, at the same time, so as to prevent him from taking 

 any food. This is the more easily done, as the foolish bird 

 takes his course in a waving and circuitous direction, which is 

 greatly shortened by the hunters, who come up behind, and, 

 relieving each other by turns, thus keep him still running. After 

 two or three days of fatigue and famine, he becomes so ex- 

 hausted, that the hunters fall upon him, and, in a few moments 

 dispatch him, by striking him on the head with cudgels, that his 

 blood may not tarnish the lustre of his white feathers. It is said, 

 that when he finds all possibility of escape cut off, the ostrich hides 

 his head, in the vain expectation that the whole of his body will 

 then be concealed from his pursuers. There are still other methods 



