Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1875 — The Ostrich. [ARTICLE]

The Ostrich.

The greatest feat of an Arab-hunter is to capture an ostrich. It is the largest of living birds, and probably the of all running animals. Being very shy and cautious, and living on the sandy plains, where there is little chance to take it by surprise, it can only be captured by a well-planned and long-con-tinudd pursuit with the swiftest horses. The ostrich has two curious habits in running when alarmed. It always starts off with outspread wings, against the wind, so that it can scent the approach of an enemy. Its sense of smell is so keen that it can detect a person at a great distance, long before one can be seen. The other curious habit is that of running in a circle. Usually five or six ostriches are found in a company. When discovered, part of the hunters, mounted on fleet horses, will pursue the birds, while the other hunters will galiop away at right angles to the course the oStriches have taken. When these hunters think they have gone far enough to cross the path the birds will be likely to take, they watch, upon some rise qf ground, for their approach. If the hunters hit the right place and see the ostriches they at once start in pursuit, with fresh horses, and sometimes overtake one or two of the birds, but often two or three of the fleet horses fall, completely tired out with so sharp a chase. (See Job xxxix. 18.) When taken the ostrich may defend itself by kicking out sideways, and is able to give quite a dangerous blow to anyone within its reach. Dr. Livingstone found that it could run at the at tonishiug speed of twenty-six miles an hour. When running at this speed the feet and legs of the bird could no more be seen than the spokes of a rapidly-re-volving wheel. The length of its stride or step is then from twenty-two to twen-ty-eight feet. * There are nine passages in the Bible which are believed to refer to the ostrich. In six or seven of them the Hebrew words are translated “owls” in our English version, though the correct reading (ostrich) is given in the margin (with references) in most of these cases. The ostrich is one of the tallest of birds, being sfiven or eight feet high. Each of its wings with its feathers is about three feet long. The long feathers are > generally white. These are counted very valuable, and are much worn and highly prized, as many of our young readers know. The young people among the Egyptians in the days of Moses liked to wear an ostrich feather quite as well as the American girls. It was a part of the head-dress of one of their gods, and was a sign of truth or justice. The feathers were also worn by Egyptian soldiers, and by priests at religious festivals. When Arabs wish to call anyone very dull, they say, “ Stupid as an ostrich.’" They say it is stupid because when hunted it sticks its head into a bush and thinks the hunter does not see it, and because it will swallow hair, wood, cord, stones, nails and other substances with great voraeity. Date stones are a favorite food. Dr. Shaw saw one swallow some bullets, hot from the mold, and another traveler lost his pocket-knife and a big bnckle in the same manner.— The Unitermliet. —An elopement in Millbtxy, Mass., had no novel features, but it called attention to* a strangely complicated family. The wife who eloped was twenty-one years old, having been married seven years, and the husband whom she left was sixty-seven. The husband’s two sons a previous wife are married to his recreant wife’s two older sisters, and her brother is the husband of her husband’s daughter.