Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-07-01


''But mother ours alone.'
-Ltppincotts Magazine.
THE OSTRICH.
BY MRS. G. HALL.
Of all the birds that show the Won
derful resources of infinite wisdom in
their construction perhaps the ostrich
is the queerest, as it certainly is the larg-
est, being among the birds what the
elephant is among animals full sized
male standing erect measuring eight feet
and more. With its long head and
neck it can overlook the tallest bushes
and reeds in which it chooses to hide,
and it's legs are said to be the swiftest
in the world.
Unlike other birds its wings are used
for running instead of flying, and with
them they can take at every step stride
of from twelve to fourteen feet, almost
across a good sized room.
The natives of Africa ride the ostrich,
and Arabs have been known to cross
the desert upon their backs, though
they sometimes run at frightful
speed. When in motion the legs are
invisible, like the spokes of wheel,
which gives the appearance of flying at
little distance from the ground.
This strange bird seldom drinks, and
it's food is as often old iron and brass
as anything else. The ostrich swal-
lows iron and great many other hard
things just as a hen swallows stones,
and it is said by those who have watch
ed their habits that they will not discrim-
mate between cold and hot; even red
hot iron they have been known to swal-
low. The appetite of the ostrich is as
Unsuitable as their capacity is great,
and almost anything that comes in their
way becomes their food-old rags,
newspapers, bones, wood, stones and
even glass!
AS pebbles and stones are used to
grind up the food of the hen, all these
hard things answer to the same pur-
pose to the ostrich. Being a great
thief it will make way in a moment
with anything that comes within its
reach, even to a gold watch and chain,
which one of these birds once purloined
from the pocket of gentleman who at
some exhibition approached it too close
ly. At single mouthful it was gone
out of sight.
The natural food of the ostrich is
grass, grain, fruits, rats, mice, insects
in fact, anything of the sort that they
can get, and they can go long time
without drink, altogether if need be!
substitute, which grows in the desert, a
sort of wild melon that absorbs the
moisture of the atmosphere in the cool
ights-truly water melon to travel
ers as we'll, who often are astonished
to find them in places where they
would not believe drop of water ever
came.
The eggs of the ostrich are immense,
single egg being equal to two dozen
hens eggs! The mother bird hollows
out place in the sand and lays her
eggs in it. By day she abandons them
to the heat of the sun, which in those
countries is very great, but always at
| night she or the male will cover them.
They are very social birds, often
using the same nest in company until
there are from sixty to seventy eggs
in nest of several feet in diameter.
Several eggs are left outside, and are
not meant to be Matched, as you will
see.
When the ostrich begins to sit she
is still laying, and as it takes nearly
two months for an egg to hatch, they
cannot all come out together: Now
see what wise provision. AS soon
as the young ostrich appears, which is
then the size of good fat hen, the
mother takes it to one of the scattered
eggs, which she breaks for its food.
In this way the little ostriches have
something to live upon until the whole
family il Matched and the mother at
liberty to look after them. Often the
bird begins to lay before she has
thought of nest. Travellers finding
them in the desert have probably given
rise to the story that they are apt to
forsake their eggs.
You ask if the eggs are good for
food? The Hottentots and ''Bushmen"
think so. A lean Bushman will eat
one of these huge eggs at a meal /,
cooked in their own peculiar way; and
this is the way he hunts them. When
he finds a nest he pulls off his
pantaloons, made of skins rudelY sewn
together, and ties them at the ankles,
making sort of forked bag. This he
fills with the eggs, setting it astride
his shoulders if walking, and if on
horseback over the horse, like a pair
of saddle-bags. The shell is so very
tough that it will bear great deal OF
jolting.
This shell is put to various uses by
the tribes inhabiting the countries
where it is found-fashioned into
bowls and ladies, and with an opening
at one end and glass-stopper at the
other, makes very good substitute
for bottle. This is really the only
kind of water vessel some people have,
and it is used in very curious manner.
Taking their ostrich shells and a couple
of long, hollow reeds to the sandy
marshes where water is sometimes
found, they thrust them down into
the wet sand with a bunch of grass at
the end, used as filter, by letting the
water pass through it. Then the
water is drawn through one tube by
the mouth, and then through the other
into a shell set upright in the ground.
Thus each person is supplied with water
in this primitive way.
| The "Bushmen," those fierce little
wild men of South Africa, make a
strange use of these ostrich shell bottles
If about to surprise an enemy's village
they bury all along the road a great
many shells filled with water. In this
way on their return home with theil
booty they find at every hating place
drink for themselves and their stoler
herds, while their pursuers are obliged
[ hno - al, Ia,