THE OSTRICH
FROM "STRUTHIOCAMELUS"
A wealthy Merchant late in Barbary.
Through sandy desarts passing, chanc't to spie
An Ostrich eating iron which he found,
By Travellers scattered upon the ground:
Quoth then this Merchant; prithee let me know
What nourishment can from those mettals grow?...
Thomas Scot
A tame ostrich, or rhea, was kept at the house, and as long as we remained indoors or
seated in the verandah he would hang about elose by, but would follow us as soon as we
started off to the orchard. He was like a pet dog and could not endure to be left alone or in the
uncongenial company of other domestic creatures - dogs, cats, fowls, turkeys, and geese.
He regarded men and women as the only suitable associates for an ostrich, but was not
allowed in the rooms on account of his inconvenient habit of swalowing metal objeets such
as scissors, spoons, thimbles, bodkins, copper coins, and anything of the kind he could snatch
up when no one was looking. In the orchard when he saw us eating peaches he would do the
same, and if he couldn't reach high enough to pluck them for himself he would beg of us.
It was great fun to give him half a dozen or more at a time, then, when they had been quickly
gobbled up, watch their progress as the long row of big round lumps slowly travelled down his
neck and disappeared one by one as the peaches passed into his crop.
W. H. Hudson, Far Away and Long Ago
The hunters catch everything with the two or three balls fastened to the thongs of
leather; the manner of proceeding is to form themselves into a sort of crescent, each man less
than a quarter of a mile apart; one goes some way abead & endeavours to drive the animals
towards the others & thus in a manner encireling them. I saw one most beautiful chase; a
fine Ostrich tried to escape; the Gauchos pursued it at a reckless pace, each man whirling the
balls round his head; the foremost at last threw them, in an instant the Ostrich rolled over &
over, its legs being fairly lasbed together by the thong. Its dying struggles were most violent.
Charles Darwin, The "Beagle" Diary
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