The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-22
THAT NOBLE BIRD, THE OSTRICH

Some Stories of His Peculiar Ways.
 The ostrich is a curious and remark
 able bird with it's enormous body, long legs and small head The experiences of the ostrich farmers, both in Africa and America, are most interesting, and there are tales without number of the strange antics of the curious birds. Naturally the first thought which oc- CUTS on seeing an ostrich is, How fast can it run? When feeding, the stride is only from 20 to 22 inches; when walking, but not feeding, the stride Is 26 inches, but when terrified the bird possesses wonderful sprinting qualities and takes steps varying from 11k to 14 feet. Taking 12 feet as the aver age, they would cover about 25 miles an hour, but the stories of birds travel ing mile a minute are open to ques- tion Other traits of which we are all ways hearing is their lack of both sus- picion and intelligence. Bushmen clothe themselves in one of their skins, and under cover of this go near enough to kill them with poisoned arrows.
 When this bird considers that he has distanced his pursuer, he often puts z his head in the sand, thinking he has thereby made himself invisible Some times when hotly pursued he turns up- on his enemies and gives hem severe wounds with his feet The habits of ostriches are not particularly attrac- tive. They eat fruits, game vegeta- bles, leaves, tender shoots, insects. snails and any other food that can be picked up, including all kinds of indi- gestable substances which they swal- low from stupid voracity. They are equally foolish about laying their eggs they often begin before the spot has been fixed upon for the nest, and the solitary eggs are often found lying for saken all over the district frequented by the ostrich. The nests are simply holes in the sand and vary from three to six feet in diameter. In these are laid by single bird, or many in com pany, from 12 to 50 eggs. They are in- cubated by night and left to the heat of the sun during the day. The males assist in the incubation and also in taking care of the young until they can jrovide for themselves. When the os- trich chicks are as big as common fowl, they run with great rapidity.
 Europeans do not care for the taste of the ostrich eggs, but bushmen are very fond of them. They weigh from two to three pounds and are equal to "A hens eggs. The flesh somewhat re- sembles turkey, but it is very tough. It will be remembered that the ostrich has been known from remote times,, and their brains were served up as food on the tables of the Romans, and are referred to even in the Book of Job
 Ostrich farming has already become considerable industry in this coun- try, as our readers will remember. Down in Florida, on an ostrich farm. there is an ostrich which acts as watchman, and woe betide the colored gentleman fond of taking fowls which do not belong to him. Such a person was nearly killed by this bird while he was attempting to steal some pheas- ants. This interesting bird, which has been dubbed Napoleon, patrols the camp every little while, giving at inter- vals a cry which may be said to mean "All is we'll" If anything alarms him, he at once communicates it to his com- panions by series of yells as he ad- vances to the attack. The Brooklyn Eagle recently gave an interesting ac- count of the method of procedure of this bird.
 When fighting, the ostrich attacks his opponent with his feet with a series of lightninglike but terrific forward kicks. The power behind these efforts, would make any government mule die with envy, and when it is known that the feet themselves are like ordinary railroad spikes and ostriches have been known to disembowel horse, it can be imagined what chance an unarmed person would stand in fight Ma poleon' stands nearly 10 feet high and weighs over 400 pounds. He is bird of unusual intelligence. and during the day he is violent enough for ordinary purposes At night, however, he be- comes a true demon, and often his keeper is obliged to stand at distance;