OSTRICH (6s'trich), (Heb. 1;:;,.yaw-ane', also no-tsaw' flying, Job xxxix:t3).
The ostrich is frequently mentioned in the Bible in terms of great beauty and precision; which commentators, perhaps more conversant with the exploded misstatements of the ancients than with the true physiological history of the bird in question, have not been happy in explain ing, sometimes referring it to wrong species, such as the peacock, or mistaking it for the stork, the eagle, or the bustard (Lev. xi;t9; Deut. xiv: Is; Job xxx:29; xxxix:t3; Is. xiii:2t; xxxiv: 13; xliii:2o; Jer. I:39; Lam. iv:3; Micah i:8). In several of these passages 'owls' has been used in our version for yaw-ane', now generally ad mitted to mean 'ostriches.' (1) Two Varieties. There are two varieties, if not two species, of the ostrich; one never attain ing seven feet in height, and covered chiefly with gray and dingy feathers; the other sometimes growing to more than ten fect, and of a glossy black plumage; the males in both having the great feathers of the wings and tail white, but the females the tail only of that color. Their dimensions render them both the largest animals of the feathered creation now existing. They ap pear promiscuously in Asia and Africa, but the troops or coveys of each arc always separate; the gray is more common in the south, while the black, which grows largest in Caffraria, pre dominates to the north of the Equator. The com mon-sized ostrich weighs about eighty pounds.
(2) Habits. Ostriches arc gregarious—from families consisting of a male with one or several female birds, and perhaps a brood or two of young, up to troops of nearly a hundred. They keep aloof from the presence of water in the wild and arid desert, mixing without hesitation among herds of gnu, wild asses, quaggas, and other striped Equidcr, and the larger species of Antilopidcr. From the nature of their food, which consists of seeds and vegetables, although seldom or never in want of drink it is evident that they must often approach more productive regions. which, by means of the great rapidity of
motion they possess. is easily accomplished; and they are consequently known to be very destruc tive to cultivated fields. As the organ of taste is very obtuse in these birds, they swallow with little or no discrimination all kinds of substances, and among others stones; it is also probal,:e that, like poultry, they devour lizards. snakes, and the young of birds that fall in their way.
(3) The Nest. It is not yet filially decided whether the two species are polygamous, though concurrent testimony seems to leave no doubt of the fact : there is, however. no uncertainty re specting the ncst, which is merely a circular basin scrapcd out of the soil, with a slight elevation at the border, and sufficiently large to contain a great number of eggs: for from twelve to about sixty have been found in them, exclusive of a cer tain number, always observed to be outlying. or placed beyond the raised border of the nest, and amounting apparently to nearly one-third of the whole. These are supposed to feed the young brood when first hatched, either in their fresh state, or in a corrupted form, when the substance in them has produced worms. These eggs are of different periods of laying, like those within, and the birds hatched form only a part of the contents of a nest, until the breeding season closes. The eggs are of different sizes, some attaining to seven inches in their longer diameter, and others less, having a dirty white shell, finely speckled with rust color ; and their weight borders on three pounds. Within the tropics they are kept sufficiently warm not to require incubation, but in colder climates one or more females sit constantly, and the male bird takes that duty himself after the sun is set. It is then that the short roar may be heard during darkness; and at other times different sounds are uttered, likened to the cooing of pigeons, the cry of a hoarse child, and the hissing of a goose; no doubt ex pressive of different emotions.