File:Natural history of birds - their architecture habits and faculties (1845) (14749694505).jpg

Identifier: naturalhistoryof00renn (find matches)
Title: Natural history of birds : their architecture habits and faculties
Year: 1845 (1840s)
Authors: Rennie, James, 1787-1867
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York : Harper
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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b, shescorneth the horse and his rider.f According toDr. Shaw, the wings serve her both for sails andoars, while her feet, which have only two toes,and are not unlike the camels, can bear great fa-tigue. M. Montbeillard, however, is of opinionthat it does not spread its wings and tail-featherswith the view of assisting its motion, but from thecommon effect of the corresponding muscles, as aman in swimming throws out his arms. Thoughthe ostrich is universally admitted to run faster thanthe fleetest horse, yet the Arabs contrive to runthese birds down on horseback, their feathers beingvaluable, and their flesh not to be despised. Thebest and fleetest horses are trained for this chase.When the hunter has started his g^me, he puts hi^horse upon a gentle gallop, so as to keep the ostriclin sight, without coming too near to alarm it andput it to its full speed. Upon observing itself pur-sued, therefore, it begins to run at first but gently, * Oiseaux, Art. Le Rale de Genet,t Job xxxiv., 18.
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Ostrich carrying a Negro. 262 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. its wings, like two arms, keeping alternate motionwith its feet. It seldom runs in a direct line, but,like the hare, doubles, or, rather, courses in a circular manner, while the hunters, taking the diameteror tracing a smaller circle, meet the bird at unex-pected turns, and with less fatigue to the horses.This chase is often continued for a day or two,when the poor ostrich is starved out and exhaust-ed, and, finding all power of escape impossible, itendeavours to hide itself from the enemies it can-not avoid, running into some thicket, or burying itshead in the sand; the hunters then rush in at fullspeed, leading as much as possible against the wind,and kill the bird with clubs, lest the feathers shouldbe soiled with blood. M. Adanson saw two tame ostriches which hadbeen kept two years at the factory of Podor, onthe south bank of the Niger. They were sotame, he says, that two little blacks mountedboth together on the back of the larges

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