REPORT ON THE OSTRICHES 
BELONGING TO THE 
ZOOLOGICAL AND ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY, 
NOW RUNNING AT LONGERENONG. 
ALSO 
Some Letters and other Information regarding the Management 
of this Bird in South Africa. 
The Ostrich is of the genus Struthio, of the family 
of the Struthionidce, of the tribe Brevipennes, and of 
the order of the Grallatores. 
The ostrich has been looked upon as the largest of 
all existing birds. The New Zealand Moa is, however, 
very much larger, being probably three times the size. 
It is now asserted that living specimens of the moa 
are still in existence, and have been seen recently ; but 
the statement is somewhat doubtful, and requires con- 
firmation. If extinct, however, it is only within a 
very recent period that it has become so, as legs of the 
bird are still to be seen with the Maories with the 
dried skin and tendons in good preservation, and com- 
plete skeletons together with the shell of the egg, have 
been forwarded to some of the European mus°eums of 
natural history. 
v , The ostrich has been called the feathered camel, from 
its habits being somewhat similar, and from some 
resemblance it bears to that quadruped. Its home is 
the desert and the open plain. Ostrich hunting is not 
without its difficulties and dangers. It requires the 
