398 THE OSTRICH AND THE CASSOWARY 



hardly to touch the ground, and the length between each stride 

 is not unfrequently from twelve to fourteen feet, so that for a time 

 he might even outstrip a locomotive rushing along at full speed. 

 In Senegal, Adanson saw a couple of ostriches so tame thcit 

 two negro boys could sit upon the largest of them. "Scarce had 

 he felt the weight," says the venerabk^ 

 naturalist, "when he began to run witli 

 all his might, and thus they rode upon 

 him several times round the village. I 

 was so much amused with the sight, that 

 I wished to see it repeated ; and in order 

 to ascertain how far the strength of the 

 birds would reach, I ordered two full- 

 grown negroes to mount upon the smallest 

 of them and two others upon the strongest. 

 Ostrich. ^^ gi-g^ ii^Qj YQj^ yQ. a short gallop with 



very small strides, but after a short time they extended their 

 wings like sails, and scampered away with such an amazing 

 velocity that they scarcely seemed to touch the ground. \\Tio- 

 ever has seen a partridge run knows that no man is able 

 to keep up with him, and were he able to make greater 

 strides his rapidity would undoubtedly be still greater. The 

 ostrich, who runs like a partridge, possesses this advantage, and I 

 am convinced that these two birds would have distanced the 

 best English horses. To be sure they would not have been able 

 to run for so long a time, but in running a race to a moderate 

 distance they would certainly have gained the prize." 



Not only by his speed is the ostrich able to baffle many an 

 enemy, the strength of his legs also serves him as an excellent 

 means of defence ; and many a panther or wild dog coming 

 "within reach of his foot has had reason to repent of its temerity. 

 But in spite of the rapidity of his flight, during which he 

 frequently flings large stones backwards with his foot, and in 

 spite of his strength, he is frequently obliged to succumb to 

 man, who knows how to hunt him in various ways. 



Unsuspicious of evil, and enjoying the full liberty of the 

 desert, a troop of ostriches wanders through the plain, the 

 monotony of which is only relieved here and there by a clump 

 of palms, a patch of candelabra shaped tree-euphorbias, or a 

 vast and solitary baobab. Some leisurely feed on the sprouts 



