OSTRICHES 
In addition to being the largest and most powerful of present-day birds, 
the ostrich is one of the swiftest of all land animals. Its short wings, though 
useless in flight, help lift its three hundred pounds, enabling it to speed 
over the desert at a rate of sixty miles an hour. This speed, however, does 
not avail the ostrich much, for the giant bird runs in a circle when pursued 
by the hunters and jackals which constitute its chief enemies. Despite this 
phenomenal stupidity, it does not, as popularly supposed, bury its head in 
the sand as a means of hiding. Its chief defense lies in the force of its peck 
and in its kick, which is said to be far mightier than that of a mule. 
Ostriches go about the desert wastes in groups of from three to a dozen, 
each male usually accompanied by a harem of three to four wives. The 
wide variety of the ostrich diet is well known. They feed on grasses, seeds, 
fruits, insects, small mammals, lizards and snakes, and are fond of salt. 
In captivity their appetites are perverse. Ostriches sometimes succumb to 
their indiscriminate appetites. An autopsy performed on one female speci¬ 
men named Wilhelmina at the Tropical Zoological Gardens at Miami, 
Florida, showed that its stomach contained a startling variety of objects that 
have been enumerated in the Preface. 
Though timid and suspicious by nature, they frequently herd with 
zebras and antelopes and maintain peaceful relations with these creatures. 
In the mating season, the males, which average eight feet in height, 
utter a loud boom-boom to impress their wives. In this they appear to be 
successful, for the combined harem will lay from forty to fifty eggs, weigh¬ 
ing some three pounds apiece. The eggs are laid in a common nest, which 
is a slight hollow scratched out in the warm sand. The male assumes his 
share of the responsibility for hatching out the eggs, sitting on them all 
night. During the day he is relieved by one of his wives, but remains nearby. 
Ostriches exercise extreme care in concealing their eggs and go to great 
lengths to avoid being seen going to and from their nests. Only about twenty 
eggs are hatched normally, the period of incubation being six weeks; some 
of those remaining are used for food by the chicks, who, though able to run 
about as soon as they are born, have not their parents’ hardy stomachs. 
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