Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1883 — The Ostrich Kick. [ARTICLE]

The Ostrich Kick.

When a farmer goes into a savage bird’s camp he takes with him a thorn pole, with a branch or two,of the thorny bush left on the end. This is called a “tuck,’’.and when the tuck is applied to the ostrich’s neck or head (his tender points) he is almost invariably subdned, and, after one or two efforts to escape, bolts furiously off to the other side of the camp, where he races up and down to vent his baffled rage. If, however, tho bird gets near enough to his opponent to give the so-called kick, he lifts his bony leg as high as his body and throws it forward with demoniac grotesqueness, and brings it down with terrible force. His object is to rip the enemy down with his dangerous claw, but in most cases it is the flat bottom of his foot which strikes, and the kick is dangerous as much from its sheer power as from its lacerating effects. It is a movement of terrible velocity and power, at all events. Several instances may be mentioned of herd-boys being thus either wounded, maimed, or killed outright. One case occurred near Graaff Reinet, in which a horse had his back broken by a single blow. In this case the bird had endeavored to kill the rider, but missed him and struck tne horse.

Many persons have been set upon by birds when there was no shelter, not even a tree to run to. In such a case, if the pursued were acquainted with struthious tactics, he would lie down flat on the ground, where the bird finds it impossible to strike him. But even this is no light matter, for some birds in their rage at being baffled of their kick, will roll ovr-r their prostrate enemy, bellowing v ith fury and trampling upon him in the most contemptuous fashion. One man who thus attempted the lyingdown plan found that every time he attended to rise the bird would return and stand sentry over him, till at last, after creeping a distance he gpt out only by swimming a pond that bounded one side of the camp.— Century Magazine.