CHAPTER XXXIV 
THE ORDER OF WINGLESS LAND-BIRDS 
RATITAE 
Lowest of the Orders of living birds is that 
which contains the birds which are so nearly 
wingless that they are wholly unable to fly, 
but are provided with long and powerful legs, 
which enable them to run swift- 
ly. Of these, there are a larger 
number of species than might 
be supposed, but our purpose re- 
quires here only the briefest in- 
troduction of a few important 
forms. The majority of the birds 
of this group are birds of great 
size, and their legs are so long 
and powerful they are able to 
kick or strike quite dangerously. 
These are the ostriches, rheas, 
cassowaries, and emeus. 
The African Ostrich 1 is the 
largest living bird, and in every 
respect it is a worthy descend- 
ant of the still more gigantic 
but now extinct moa of New 
Zealand. Our full-grown male 
Ostrich stands, when fully erect, 
exactly 8 feet in height to the 
top of its head, and weighs about 
275 pounds. The manager of the 
Florida Ostrich Farm at Jack- 
sonville states that the average 
weight of adult African Ostriches 
is about 300 pounds. 
Once abundant in nearly all 
the dry and open country of 
Africa, except the Sahara and Lib- 
yan deserts, this noble bird has 
shared the fate of the. elephant, rhinoceros, buf- 
falo and giraffe. To-day it is to be found but 
sparingly, and only in those regions of southern 
and eastern Africa wherein it has been impossi- 
ble for man to exterminate it. The value in 
America of a full-grown African Ostrich is $250. 
1 Stru'thi-o cam'e-lus. 
Fortunately the Ostrich farms of South 
Africa and southern California have proven 
completely successful, and bid fair to perpetuate 
this grandest of all feathered creatures long 
New York Zoological Park. 
CERAM CASSOWARY. 
after the last wild flock has been destroyed. 
If many Ostriches still remain in the Egyptian 
Soudan, the stringent game-laws recently enacted 
to protect the wild life of that region will go 
far toward perpetuating them. 
The Rhea, or South American Ostrich , 2 
2 Rhe'a americana. 
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