The Globe-republican., 1891-08-19
a HUMOROUS BIRD.
The Ostrich Furnishes Much Fun II Pfop0'
" Studied.

-
" Studied.
The ostrich is not bird that can DO
easily brought up in the way that it
should go. It has no powers of discrim-
nation. Because God hath deprived
her of wisdom, neither had He inn
parted to her understanding runs
the description of the ostrich in the
book of Job It can not discriminate
between a wire fence and the open
camp, between friends and foes or be-
tween what is helpful and what is hurt
full to the digestion. 1t was owing to
its want of understanding in this last
respect and to an equal want of dis
elimination on the part of the British
public that it has been found impossi-
Bile to keep ostriches alive in the ZOO
logical gardens in London. public
accustomed to slip its pennies into au-
tomato machines could rot refrain
from the temptation offered by the
omniverous throat Of an ostrich, and
filed them up with poisonous copper.
as if they were so many missionary
boxes. In its African life, however,
the chief danger that besets it is not
the recklessness of its appetite, but its
reckless disregard of its own limbs. 1t
will take fright at a shadow and hurl
itself blindly into the nearest fence,
from which it will be extricated with
broken leg. or fight savagely with a
brother ostrich and break its leg, or
dance. Waiting with swift and grace
full precision, affording a most beauti-
full sight to the spectator and the great
est satisfaction to himself. until giddi-
ness comes upon it and brings it to the
ground-again with broken leg. 1t is
true that its dangerously powerful legs
are also very brittle, but it must be con-
fessed that it does not use them well.
OF the danger that the owner some
times runs from those powerful limbs,
a recent writer tells some very amusing
stories. A sturdy newcomer, some six
feet in height, laughed at the warnings
that were given him when he set out
for a walk and disdainfully refused the
protection of a tacky-a thorny branch.
the dexterous use of which will keep
the ostrich at bay-averring that he
twas not afraid of dicky bird" He
=" dS IAlSSCu dA0 oASSONSACo oOIAC hO0tS
afterward by a search party most I'M
comfortably perched on the top of an
ironstone bowlder. and slowly grilling
under the African sun, while the
''dickybird' did sentry up and down.
watching him with an evil eye. An
other gentleman had theory that any
creature, however savage, could be
subdued- as he said-by the
human eve. One day he tried to quel
suit that he was presently found in a
very pitiable predicament, lying fat on
the ground, while the subject of his ex-
pertinent jumped up and down on him,
occasionally varying the treatment by
sitting upon him. Doubtless it was
safer to lie down than to stand up to be
kicked; but to be sat upon as if one
were an egg must have been indeed
humiliating.
author gives Of the camps or little
kingdoms that the ostriches mark out
for themselves. with invisible but never
to-be-encroached-upo boundaries. In
side that camp it will bear no intrusion,
but outside of it, in the domain of its
neighbor. it is profoundly Indifferent to
the strangers wandering s. Nor is it safe
for the farmer to presume upon his
former acquaintance with any bird, for
the ostrich has not wits enough to distin-
guish an old friend from new intruder,
nor sufficient respect for his owner to
except him from his suspicious HOSTILE
ties, though it would appear that, as
rule. he will manifest stronger aver
sion to the kaffir or Hottentot than to
white man.-Great Divide.