The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1892-02-26
FRANKS OF THE OSTRICH.

THE Tall, Ungainly Bird Does Some
Mighty Queer Things at Times.
The ostrich Is not a bird that can be
easily brought up in the way that 1t
should 60. 1t has no powers of dis
elimination. Because God hath de-
prived her of wisdom, neither had he
impaired to her understanding"-as
runs the description Of the ostrich in
the book of Job. It cannot discrim
mate between a wire fence and the
open camp, between friends and foes,
OF between what IL helpful and what
Is hurtful to the digestion. It was ow.
ing to its want of understanding In this
last respect, and to an equal want OF
discrimination on the part of the Brit
ish public, that it has been found i'm
possible to keep ostriches alive In the
geological gardens in London.
A public accustomed to slip its pen.
MES into automatic machines could not
refrain from the temptation offered by
the omniverous throat of an ostrich.
and filed them up with poisonous cop
per. as If they were 50 many missionary
boxes. In It's African life, however.
the chief danger that besets it is not the
recklessness of its appetite, but its reck.
less disregard Of its own limbs. It viii
take fright at a shadow and hurl Itself
blindly into the nearest fence, from
which It will be extricated with q
broken leg, or fight savagely with Q
brother ostrich and break its leg, OF
dance, waltzing with swift and graceful
precision, afording a most beautiful
sight to the spectator and the creates
satisfaction to himself, until giddines
comes upon It and brings It to tn
ground-again with a broken leg. 1
is true that its dangerously powerful
legs are also very brittle, but it must b'
confessed that It does not use then
well.
OF the danger that the owner some
1 times runs from those powerful limbs
a writer tells some very amusing sto
, riea. A sturdy newcomer, some 81
feet in height. laughed at the warning
, that were given him when he set GU
, for a walk and disdainfully refused tn
. protection of tacky-a thorny branch
the dexterous use of which will kee]
the ostrich at bay-averring that b
was not afraid of a dicky blrdW HI
was missed and discovered some hour
afterward by q search party most un
comfortably perched on the top of a,
tronstone bowlder and slowly grillinl
!, under the African sun. while the dick,
bird" did sentry up and down, watch
log him with an evil eye.
:. Another gentleman had a theory tina
, any creature, however savage. could b
subdued-'quelled." as he said-b.
the human eye. One day he tried t.
quell one of his own ostriches. with tn
t result that he vas presently found In
very pitiable predicament, lying fiat Of
the ground, while the subject of hi
experiment jumped up and down o,
him, occasionally varying the treat
ment by sitting upon him. Doubles
Il was safer to lie down than to stant
up to be kicked; but to DO sat upon a
II one were an egg must have been In
deed humiliating.
,, Curious, too, Is the account that tn
author gives of the camps or littl
Kingdoms that the ostriches mark GU
for themselves. with invisible but neve
! to be encroached upon boundaries
Inside that camp It will bear No in
trudon, but outside Of 1t, In the do
main Of it, neighbor, it Is profoundly In
different to the strangers wanderingz
Nor Il Il safe for the farmer to pre-
r sumo upon his former acquaintanc'
With any bird. for the ostrich bas no