The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-04-30
The Ostrich.

some of the feathers grow in the year
to be two feet long, an adequate estl-.
mate may be formed of the impulse Of
it, and of it's exhausting demands. An
ostrich is strong, it must be admitted,
to allow for this heavy wear and tear;
and it is quite clear he should be. To
put his dimensions and his powers into
figures, they are that his ordinary height
of six feet is sometimes increased to
eight feet; that he weighs three hum
dred pounds; that he can carry couple
of men upon his back; that he can roar
as Justify as lion, though when he is in
q rage he can. only cackle foolishly and
hiss He likes seven wives, too (and
all the seven at once, not one after the
other has been beheaded); he can make
q meal Of stones; he can rush at a
speed of sixty miles an hour, outstrip-
ping an express train; he can rip open
a dog with one blow of his foot easily
has been known by the same imple-
ment to rip up man: and even such
stealthy and powerful animals as leop-
ards will run away at his approach, not
venturing to meet the terror of his at
tack. Yet the poor bird has weak sides
to him. He allows an African hunter
to approach him, if the African decks
himself out in the feathers of the ostrich
family, and makes his way along with
an ostrich shamble; he is idiotic
enough, when he is running, to run his
sixty miles in circles, and so return to
the spot he started from for certain cap
ture; he loves the comfort of company;
lie will stay by herds Of giraffes and
antelopes and quaggas; he is vegetarian;
he will quench his thirst by eating
desert gourds and melons; lie will en-
sconce himself in q field of corn quite
happily, the said field being part of a
Boer farm or native settlement. and
there he and his seven wives will dis
pose of that corn. very quickly. AS for
the female ostrich, the current reports
of her belle her scandalously. A lady
ostrich shuns her eggs, it is true, but
it is only in the daytime, when the sun
is warm and she is not needed; as night
approaches and the air grows cool, she
faithfully returns. Then lady ostrich
will hatch others eggs, it is true, again;
but it is for a better reason still. She
is one of seven wives, it must be recol-
lected; there is only one hole made in
the sand for the common nest of all Of
them; 50 if one wife is sitting it is
enough, and she who sits is q better
step-mother than many human STEP
mothers, since the eggs Of her six sister
wives get rs much comfort out of her
as she is able to give to her own. Her
method, also, of laying her eggs (about
tcn) is beautiful. She places them per-
fectly on end; and if she cannot wait
till q sister wife vacates the nest to let
her enter, the egg she is forced to part
with is scattered quite near on the sand,
to be food, after the common Matching,
for all the common young. There is a
.wtimehen she will forsake her brood,
certainly. 1t is if a tricking African has
been near it, and she discovers he has
been by her sense of smell. Then fear for
her life overpowers all other feelings, it
may be; at any rate, she will never
approach. But she is not often tried in
this way, as the Africans have learned
how to rake for her eggs with a long
stick from long distance while she
happens to be away, and as the bird
has thus no knowledge of the robbery
that has been committed upon her, she
Will hcCD uoIllS HCl hSSe, OlllJ toA ohC
eggs to be stolen again and again, and
for the robber to find in it q. constant
source of profit.
And that an ostrich egg is worth steal
ing there can be no question. Its weight
is three pounds, as much as twenty
hens eggs put all together; it is its own
saucepan, requiring nothing but to be
stuck upright in a fire, with q hole
cracked in its. point for a forked stick
to be thrust through to give it an oc-
casional stir; and when it has been
cooked and eaten, the empty shell can
be turned into cup or basin, and in
that form have long life and much
utility. But never, it must be con-
ceded, does the ostrich furnish agreea-
BILE food. Ostrich meat is tough, and
were it not for the beauty Of ostrich
feathers, the ostrich would never be
caught, and never be cultivated. It is
Il matter of being pleased with feather,
which in this case to the feather
owner chances to be lucky.-Harper's
Bazar.