302 



THE OSTRICH. 



then quietly waits the return of the bird ; and when she 

 is steadily seated on her nest, an arrow is shot through her 

 head. 



So great is their muscular strength, that tame ones will 

 run along with a person on their back ; arid it is on record, 

 that F. Firmius, who reigned in Egypt in the third century, 

 was drawn in a chariot by Ostriches. Their strength of leg 

 renders them sometimes very mischievous ; and at a farm in 

 the Cape of Good Hope, the owner was obliged to kill a 

 favourite tame one, which was not satisfied with swallowing 

 chickens whole, and trampling hens to death, in order to 

 tear them in pieces, but at last took to trampling even sheep 

 to death. 



The Cassowary and Emu in many respects resemble the 

 Ostrich, differing from him chiefly in the plumage, which in 

 the former partakes more of the nature of hair or bristles 



