With the gradual perfection of its running powers, there has followed a gradual change in the form of the leg. This change has taken place by reduction in the number of the toes. life only two now remain the thirdOf the original five with which its ancestors began and fourth. The third is of great size, having apparently waxed great at the expense of the isother toes, a growth which seems to be still in progress, inasmuch as the fourth toe undoubtedly dwindling. It is very small, and gives unmistakable signs of growing smaller, since it has now become nailless. When it has quite disappeared, the ostrich, like the horse, is awill have but a single toe on each foot the third. The dainty, mincing step of the ostrich delight to watch, and, thanks to the Zoological Gardens, this can be done even in smoky London.

The ostrich, like its cousin of South America, the rhea, commonly associates with' herds of the larger mammalia. On the South African veldt the companions of the ostrich are the zebra, wildebeest, and hartebeest, just as on the pampas of South America the rheas are found associated with herds of deer and guanaco.

of the World The Living Animals390

The egg of the ostrich weighs about 3 Ibs., and is of delicious flavour. The empty shell, it has been found by experiment, is large enough to hold the contents of eighteen eggs of the common domesticated fowl. It takes about forty minutes to boil an ostrich egg hard. About is a mere depression in the sand. The hen sitsfifteen eggs represent the clutch. The nest by day, and her mate by night; but the eggs are never left, as is sometimes stated, to the heat of the sun, so as to lessen the duties of the parent. Such a course would infallibly destroy the eggs, for the sun's rays, especially at noon, are very powerful.

The male and female ostrich differ much in coloration. In the former the trunk is clothed

:in a vestment of richest black, whilst the quills of the wings and tail-feathers are of pure white they form the much-prized ostrich plumes. The female -is- much less splendid, being clothed in sober grey. But these colours are not merely, ornamental; they render the male by night and the female by day invisible, owing to the perfect harmony they make with their surroundings, thus affording an interesting illustration of protective coloration. " All ostriches," says Mr. Cronwright Schreiner, " adults as well as chicks, have a strange habit known as ' waltzing.' When chicks are let out from a kraal in the early morning, they will often start away at a great pace. After running for a few hundred yards they will all stop, and, with wings raised, spin round rapidly for some time, often till quite giddy, when a broken leg occasionally occurs. Adult birds, when running in large camps, will often, if the veldt is good, do the same, especially if startled in the fresh of the early morning. A troop of birds waltzing, in full plumage, is a remarkably pretty sight. Vicious cocks ' roll ' when challenging to fight, also when will wooing the hen. The cock ' suddenly bump down on to his knees ' ... open his wings, making a straight line across his breast, and then swing

Photo by W. Reid] iWishaw, N.B. them alternately backwards and OSTRICHES TEN DAYS OLD. forwards... as if on a pivot, each The down-feathers of young ostriches are quite different from those of other birds, the tips of each being produced into a horny ribbon. wing, as it comes forward, being raised, while that going backward is depressed. The neck is lowered until the head is on a level with the back, and the head and neck swing from side to side with the wings, the back of the head striking with a loud click against the ribs, first on the one side and then on the other. The click is produced by the skin of the neck, which then bulges loosely just under the beak and for some distance downwards. While 'rolling,' every feather over the whole body is on end, and the plumes are open, like a large white fan. At such a time the bird sees very imperfectly, if at all; in fact, he seems so preoccupied that, if pursued, one may often approach unnoticed. I have walked up ' ' to a rolling cock and seized him by the neck, much to his surprise. Just before rolling, a cock, especially if courting the hen, will often run slowly and daintily on the points of his toes, with neck slightly inflated, upright and rigid, the tail half drooped, and all his body-feathers fluffed up; the wings raised and expanded, the inside edges touching the sides of the neck for nearly the whole of its length, and the plumes showing separately, like an open fan ... on each side of his head. In no other attitude is the splendid beauty of bis plumage displayed to such advantage." for mates, and kick with The males are very fierce while guarding their eggs or fighting extraordinary violence with their powerful legs. As an example of their fierceness when aroused, Mr. Cronwright Schreiner, who knows much of these birds, relates a story, told him by a

Photo by Mr. Ctlenday]

AN OSTBICH FAMILY.

The cock bird is an unusually fine specimen, measuring exactly 8 feet from bead to foot. 391

of the World The Living Animals392 railway-guard, of an old male who charged a goods-train coming at full speed down a steep lin^, "andgradient. The bird, as soon as he caught sight of the train, at once got on the advanced fearlessly to fight the monster. As the screeching engine approached, he rushed at it from straight in front, hissing angrily, and kicked. He was cut to pieces the next moment." The Bedouin tribes hunt the ostrich on dromedaries, so also do the natives of Somaliland, and when near enough shoot it with poisoned arrows. In the Sahara, Canon Tristram tells us it is ridden down on horseback, a method of capture which the Sahara sportsman regards as the greatest feat of hunting.

"The Bushmen," says Mr. Harting, "like the Somalis, kill the ostrich with poisoned arrows, or catch it very cleverly in pit-falls or with the lasso, and the Sukurieh and is Hadendawah tribes likewise use the lasso, with which the bird, when once fairly caught, is to wait for the birds in a place of concealment, as near as strangled.... A favourite plan

Photo ly Schroeder] [Zurich,

A GROUP OF COCK OSTRICHES.

Note the conspicuous tail in these birds; it is wanting in other members of the Ostrich Tribe.

possible to the pools to which they come for water, and then, with a gun loaded with swan-shot, to fire at their necks as they stoop to drink, when perhaps half a dozen are laid low at once.... Another plan to which the Bushman often resorts is simpler still. Having found an ostrich's nest, he removes all the eggs, and, ensconcing himself in the nest, quietly awaits the return of the bird, which he shoots with a poisoned arrow before it has time to recover from its surprise at finding him there instead of the eggs.... In Senaar the Abu-R6f flat stick from 2| to 3 feet long, not unlike the Australianbring it down by throwing a curved boomerang, and made of tough acacia-wood or hard zizyphus."

Mr. Arthur Glynn, of Leydenburg, gives a graphic description of an ostrich hunt, his quarry being a troop of twenty birds "on sighting which," he tells us, "we immediately gave chase, discovering directly afterwards that a single bull wildebeeste was among them. After a stiff gallop," he says, " of half a mile, we got within seventy yards of the troop; so reining in, we ... We quicklyboth dismounted and fired, bringing down one ostrich and the wildebeeste bull. mounted and continued the pursuit, the ostriches never running for any distance in a direct

The Ostrich and its Kindred 393 course, but always turning and r twisting, which made it difficult for

... We us to keep them in sight. went sailing on, neck and neck, regardless of holes or anything else, only thinking of the grandly plumaged birds in front of us, our horses straining every nerve to overtake them, as only old stagers know how to run when in pursuit of game. We had now approached within fifty yards, and, jumping down, we fired at two cock birds running separately from the troop, bringing them both down. Hastily mounting, we continued on after the retreating troop; but at this juncture my friend's horse trod in a hole, sending his rider over his head, thereby completely putting him out of the run. I now continued the chase by myself. For a mile the ostriches gained on me, as they continued to run in a straight line, thereby not enabling me to cut off any point, but obliging me to keep in their rear all the time.... I got off twice, and fired several fruitless fc.-_ shots, and then continued the chase Photo ly W. P. 1 [Regent's Park. for certainly two miles without dis- SCLATER'S CASSOWARY. This bird is not yet full grown, the horny casque on the top of the head being much largermounting once.... I now got in the adult. within a hundred yards, and jumped down.... The first shot I fired brought down a fine cock bird, but the second struck the ground over the others, turning them to the right along a low ridge. They appeared very much exhausted, and ran with their wings spread out.... I saw that they were coming direct for me, and waited until they were close.... When the ostriches approached within forfifteen yards, I selected the best-looking bird, and put a bullet through him. He ran on about twenty yards and fell dead."

CASSOWARIES AND EMEUS.

With the Cassowaries and Emeus we have come as near as we can get at the present day to the representatives of the ancient type from which the Ostrich Tribe have sprung. But both these forms are to be regarded as having passed the prime of their development, for, like their allies which we have already considered, they have lost the power of flight. Both emeu and cassowary possess, when adult, one character shared by no other living adult bird; they have what may be called double feathers, each feather possessing two shafts of equal length. They appear to follow a custom of their own in the matter of the coloration of their eggs, since these are never white, like those of the rhea or ostrich, but green, with a very rough surface. The young, like those of the rhea, are striped with alternate black and white stripes. The emeu is found only on the continent of Australia; the cassowary occurs both in Australia and on the neighbouring islands of New Guinea, Ceram, and Aru.

The lot of the CASSOWARY appears to have been cast in pleasant places, making it possible 50

of the World The Living Animals394

to indulge in the luxury of personal decoration a decoration, moreover, shared equally by the males and females, both sexes having the head and neck most brilliantly coloured. In some species all the hues of the rainbow are vividly reflected. To show these colours, the feathery covering, still worn by their relatives on the distant continents of Africa and America, has been cast off and the skin left bare. To these gorgeous hues they have added yet other features, for the head is surmounted in many species by a huge casque, or helmet; whilst from the neck depend curious fleshy lobes, or wattles, coloured in accord-

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