ORDER GRALL.'E. 435 



such as the head, top of the neck, thighs, flanks, and under 

 the wings. 



The vigour of the ostrich is so surprising, that when 

 mounted by two men, it will run faster than one of our best 

 English horses. We have the testimony of Adamson on this 

 subject, who frequently witnessed this sort of spectacle in 

 Senegal. It is even necessary that a man should be habi- 

 tuated by degrees to this exercise, to prevent its producing 

 suffocation. The ostrich in running always keeps its wings 

 raised, although the contexture of the feathers which renders 

 them improper for flight would seem equally to prevent them 

 being of much service in accelerating the course of the bird. 

 But though their assistance in this way, by striking the air, 

 may be futile, yet it is not improbable that they serve as a 

 balance to keep the body in equilibrium, and perhaps may 

 alter its specific gravity. 



With such advantages it would seem easy enough for the 

 ostrich to withdraw itself from danger ; notwithstanding them, 

 however, snares are not the only means by which man con- 

 trives to render himself master of this bird. The inhabitants 

 of a part of Abyssinia, who lived particularly on these birds, 

 and were in ancient times consequently called Struthophagi^ 

 did not confine themselves to hunting the ostrich with the 

 bow. According to Strabo, they used to cover themselves 

 with the skin of these birds, and passing the right hand into 

 the neck, give it similar motions to those exhibited by the 

 ostrich, while with the other hand they scattered grain about, 

 to attract the ostriches into the snares which had been set for 

 them. Oppian, in the third book of his poem " De Vena- 

 tine,'' relates that nets were also employed, into which the 

 ostriches were driven by pursuing them with horses and 

 dogs; but for a long time the Arabs have used horses alone 

 in the chase of the ostrich. This bird, which would escape 

 easily if it always pursued a straight line, on the contrary 



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