The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-05-13
PLUME" IS BIRD
| IN FIGHTING buds
The Cock Ostrich Of the Plains IS
Perfectly Capable OF Caring for
Himself and
Family.
NOTHING ESCAPES HIM
Even the Big Animals are Afraid OF
Him-He Has Supercilious Glib
son Walk and Can Also
Run.
NOTHING ESCAPES HIM

Ii was that precise hour when the
distant landscape shimmerea WIN
heat. when the restless mirage huns
on the horizon like visible dreams,
and when the only thing alive OIL
on the plans were the dancing dust
deyils"-and they were inanimate-
and in the sky specks floating IN the
eye which would have turned into
vultures if anything had died.
All the antelopes and the zebras
were motionless portions Of the
shade under the candelabrallke Gu
phorbia trees and all the birds were
still
The silence was the silence OF
heat, sizzling, frying heat, wnlcn
only the big lizards defied IN tne
open jor among the rocks that were
blistering to the touch
Then came the voice, resonant
hollow, booming, powerful, extraorai'
nary. like some distant war drum
beating, or the bass thunder OF
lion, if lion ever challenged at mid
day. But neither lion nor natives
ever wore that conspicuous black
and white livery, or stalked along at
that tremendous pace as he came
alone and afar across the plain.
booming as he came. 1t was Plumes,
the cock ostrich, says writer IN
London Answers.
Plumes must have been somewhere
out of sight afar in hollow, feeding
upon-oh. upon pebbles, for all
know: there seemed nothing else.
But the animal does not live that
can escape Piumes' super high power
prismatic binocular eyes, which was
why Plumes came back now.
When 500 yards away, the giant
bird left off booming; set all sail,
so to speak, which in his case meant
opening stumpy wings adorned with
beautiful plumes sufficient to stock
shop, and-let himself go.
Till that moment he had merely
walked as fast as most beasts run.
a supercilious Gibson walk. Now he
ran, and the dust smoked out behind
him like the exhaust behind motor
car. Anyone who thought he could
run faster, or half as fast, Tor the
matter Of that, was at full liberty TO
do SO.
The striped hyena did not think he
could, but he had to try; and he
started up-invisib1e till then behind
a cactus husband raced for his
skulking life.
Just short of the mimosa scrub,
Plumes caught him up. The hyena
recoiIed upon his own tail, swapping
fiercely, to fight the last fight. But
Plumes. head back, wings spread,
wild-eyed, five feet high at the back,
even, lowered over him like Azarel.
and-he died.
One kick was enough from that
terribly armed, twin-clawed foot
lust one blasting down-stroke beating
az the sledgehammer strikes.
Then Plumes stalked away, con
sciously aware, of course, of his much
smaller wife, herself quite invisible,
wing flat on her eight huge eggs
bang in the open, where the hyena
had been stalking her. Aware, too.
now. of something that had been a
hyena before the kick landed, but
was now one no longer.
Night came swiftly, as 1t does IN
these parts, racing over the mystic,
riuus plains, and Plumes, feeding far
away on the horizon, put up his flat
head and began to stalk westward in
the dark. The lions and the thunder
! were clamoring together among the
hills, but this time Plumes did not
answer. He had other work to do
Slowly tf1s~-hen ostrich got up
stretched and faded aw5y-sa-sfeed
Slowly Plumes let himself down on
the eggs to remain there for the
night.
His black plumage made him prac-
tically invisible in the dark. and if
there were any who should scent the
nest, and aim at its destruction. the
great male bird was quite capable Of
tackling them single-legged, save
only If they be not lions, wild dog
! pack, or one very big leopard.