SHORT-WINGED CURSORIAL BIRDS. 289 



to the end of the tail at least six feet ; the weight of the body is about one hundredweight and a half. 

 These large and remarkable birds inhabit the vast deserts and barren steppes of Southern Africa, 

 and were formerly far more numerous than they are now. Lichtenstein, who wrote at the commence- 

 ment of this century, mentions having seen flocks containing as many as 300 individuals in the 

 country near the Cape, but at the present day they are usually met with in small families, consisting ■ 

 of but one male and from two to four females. In such countries as are not subjected to any violent 

 changes of temperature, they remain from one year to another within a certain limited district, 

 provided it affords them ample means of subsistence, and a large supply of water, which is indis- 

 pensable. As regards the development of their senses, these birds are very unequally gifted ; their 

 power of sight is extensive, whilst their taste and hearing are comparatively deficient The cry of the 

 Ostrich, which is often uttered at night, is a loud, dolorous, and stridulous sound, and in the stillness 

 of the desert plains may be heard to a great distance. Some have compared it to the roar of the lion, 

 but Dr. Tristram, from whom we borrow the following account of the habits of this bird, describes it as 

 more like the hoarse lowing of an ox in pain. The note of the Ostrich during the day or when 

 feeding he describes as being very different — a sort of hissing chuckle. The beauty of its wings 

 and tail-feathers, which are as highly prized by the Bedouins for the decoration of tombs and of the 

 tents and spear-heads of their sheikhs as they are for head-dresses among AVestern nations, have 

 caused its chase to be a favourite employment of all desert tribes, and good skins fetch very high 

 prices in the native markets. This bird never approaches settled habitations, and very rarely 

 cultivated lands ; it usually selects an open space where it is safe from surprise, and where by its 

 fleetness it " scorneth the horse and his rider." 



" The capture of the Ostrich is the greatest feat of hunting to which the Arab sportsman aspires, 

 and in richness of booty it ranks next to the plunder of a caravan. So wary is the bird, and so 

 open are the vast plains over which it roams, that no ambuscades or artifices can be employed, 

 and the vulgar resource of dogged perseverance is the only mode of pursuit. The horses to be 

 employed undergo a long and painful training : abstinence from water and a diet of dry dates being 

 considered the best means for strengthening their wind. The hunters set forth with small skins of 

 water strapped under their horses' bellies, and a scanty allowance of food for four or five days 

 distributed judiciously about their saddles. The Ostrich generally lives in companies of from four 

 to six individuals, which do not appear to be in the habit, under ordinary circumstances, of wandering 

 more than twenty or thirty miles from their head-quarters. When descried, two or three of the 

 hunters follow the herd, at a gentle gallop, endeavouring merely to keep the birds in sight without 

 alarming them or driving them at full speed, when they would soon be lost to view. The rest of 

 the pursuers leisurely proceed in a direction at right angles to the course which the Ostriches have 

 taken, knowing by experience their habit of running in a circle. Posted on the best look-out they 

 can find, they await for hours the anticipated route of the game, calculating upon intersecting their 

 path. If fortunate enough to detect them, the relay sets upon the now fatigued flock, and 

 frequently succeeds in running one or two down ; though a horse or two generally falls exhausted 

 in the pursuit." 



The Ostrich when once taken offers no resistance beyond kicking out sideways. Its speed has 

 been calculated, by Dr. Livingstone, at twenty-six miles an hour, and yet the South African Ostrich 

 is smaller than the northern species ; Dr. Tristram, who, in the Sahara, measured the stride of the 

 latter when bounding at full speed, found it to be from twenty-two to twenty-eight feet. If Dr. 

 Livingstone's calculation be at all correct, the speed of the Ostrich is unequalled by any other 

 cursorial animal. Portions of plants, grass, seeds, and insects form tlie principal food of these biids, 

 but nothing that they can by any possibility swallow seems to come amiss to them ; even should the 

 VOL. in, — 116 



