OSTRICH, Strutkio, a genus of birds of the order grallatores, and tribe breripennes (q.v.), in Cuvier's system—the order cursores (or runners) of some ornithologists. In this genus the bill is of moderate length, broad, flattened, rounded at the tip. the mandi bles flexible; the head small; the neck long; the legs long (both tibia and tarsus) and very robust, the lower part of the tibia, as well as the tarsus, naked; the feet have only two toes, of which the inner is the largest, and has a short claw. the outer has no claw; the wings are too short to be used for flight, but are useful to aid in running; the plum age is lax and flexible; the wings and tail have long soft drooping plumes. Only one species is known (S. camelas), a native of the sandy deserts of Africa and Arabia: the South American ostriches, or nandus (q.v.), constituting a distinct genus. The ostrich is the largest of all birds now existing, being from 6 to 8 ft. in height to the top of its head, and an adult male weighing from 200 to 300 pounds. The male is rather larget than the female. The head arid upper part of the neck are scantily covered with a thin down, through which the skin is visible. The young have the head and neck clothed with feathers. The general plumage is glossy black inthe adult male, dark grey in the female arid young, with a slight sprinkling of white feathers; the long plumes of tile wings and tail are white, occasionally marked with black. On each wing are two phuneless shafts, not unlike porcupine's quills. The inner toe is very large, about 7 in. long, and its claw hoof-like. Whilst the sternum is destitute of a keel, and tli muscles which move the wings are comparatively weak, those which move the legs are of prodigious strength, so that the ostriA is not only capable of running with great speed, but of striking such a blow with its foot as to make it too formidable for the leopard and other large beasts of prey to assail it. It has been often known to rip open a dog by a single stroke, and a man is recorded to have suffered the same fate. The eyes of the ostrich are large, and the lids arc furnished with lashes. Its sight is keen, so
that it descries objects at it great distance in the open desert.
The ostrich shuns the presence of man, but is often to be seen in near proximity to herds of zebras, quaggas, giraffes, antelopes, and other quadrupeds. It is gregarious, although the flocks of ostriches are not generally very large. It is polygamous, one male usually appropriating to himself. when he can, from two to seven females, which seem to make their nest in scooping a mere hole in thesand for this purpose. Each female is supposed to lay about ten eggs. The eggs are all placed on end in the nest, which often contains a large number, whilst around it eggs are generally to be found scattered on the sand. Concerning these, it has been supposed that they are intended for the food of the young birds before they are able to go in quest of other food; an improbable notion, not supported by evidence. It seems at least as likely that these scattered eggs are laid by females waiting whilst the nest is occupied by [mother, and that they are lost to the ostriches and no more regarded. Contrary to a very generally received opinion, the ostrich does not leave her eggs to be hatched entirely by the heat of the sun; or, if this be the ease in the warmest regions, it is otherwise in the more northern and southern eountriesin which this bird is found; and by a remarkable instinct, the ostrich sits upon the eggs by night, when the cold would be too great for them, and leaves them to the sun's heat during the day.
The ostrich feeds exclusively on substances, its food consisting in great part of grasses and their seeds; so that its visits are much dreaded by the cultivators of the soil in the vicinity of its haunts, a flock of ostriches soon making terrible devasta tion of a field of corn. The ostrich has a very large crop, a strong gizzard. and a pretty large prorentrieulus between the crop and the gizzard; the intestine,s are voluminous, and the ececa loug, with at remarkable spiral valve. There is a receptacle in which the urine accumulates, as in a bladder, a thing very uncommon in birds.