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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ORC-PAI |
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OSTRICH (O. Eng. estridge; Fr. autruche; Span. avestruz; Lat. avis struthio; Gr. o-rpothicev or 6 ,4ryas arpovO6s); the Struthio camelus of Linnaeus, and the largest of living birds, an adult male standing
The genus Struthio forms the type of the group of Ratite birds, characterized chiefly by large size, breast-bone without a keel, strong running legs, rudimentary wings and simple feathers (see BIRD). The most obvious distinctive character presented by the ostrich is the presence of two toes only, the third and fourth, on each foot--a character absolutely peculiar to the genus Struthio. In South America another large Ratite bird, the rhea, is called ostrich; it can be distinguished at once from the true ostrich by its possession of three toes. B From the Monogr. Palaeont. Soc. ag., Angular. a.d.l., Anterior dorso-lateral. a.m.d., Anterior median dorsal. Anterior ventro-lateral. Central. Dorsal anconeal. Dorsal articular. Extra lateral. External marginal. Internal marginal. Lateral. Lateral occipital. in.occ., Median occipital. m.v., Median ventral. mx., Maxilla. o., Ocular. p.d.l., Posterior dorso-lateral. p.m., Pre-median. p.m.d.,Po sterior dorsal p.v.l., Posterior ventro-lateral. pt.m., Post-median. s.l., Semilunar. t., Terminal. v.a., Ventral anconeal. v.ar., Ventral articular. a.v.l., c., d.a., d.ar., e.l., e.m., i.m., l., Lott., in., Median. m.m., Marginals of lower limb. median during fossilization. They agree with fishes in the possession of median fins, and resemble the large majority of early fishes in their unequal-lobed (heterocercal) tail, but they have no ordinary From British Museum, Catalogue of Fossil Fishes, by permission of the Trustees. members of the group. The Ostracoderms
The wild ostrich' is disappearing before the persecution of man, and there are many districts, some of wide extent, frequented by the ostrich in the 19th centuryespecially towards the extremities of its African rangein which it no longer occurs, while in Asia there is evidence, more or less trustworthy, of its former existence in most parts of the south-western desert-tracts, in few of which it is now to be found. Xenophon's notice of its abundance in Assyria (Anabasis, i. 5) is well known. It is probable that it still lingers in the wastes of Kirwan in eastern Persia, whence examples may occasionally stray north-ward to those of Turkestan,2 even near the Lower Oxus; but the assertion, often repeated, as to its former occurrence in Baluchistan
Ostrich. for acceptance. Apparently the most northerly limit of the ostrich's ordinary range at the present day is that portion of the Syrian Desert lying directly eastward of Damascus; and, within the limits of what may be called Palestine, H. B. Tristram (Fauna and Flora of Palestine, p. 139) regards it as but a straggler from central Arabia, though we have little information as to its distribution in that country,Africa is still, as in ancient days, the continent in which the ostrich chiefly flourishes. There it appears to inhabit every waste sufficiently extensive to afford it the solitude it loves. Yet even there it has to contend with the many species of carnivora which prey upon its eggs and youngthe latter especially; and H. Lichtenstein long ago remarked3 that if it ' A good summary of the present distribution is contained in the Ostriches and Ostrich Farming of De Mosenthal and Harting, from which the accompanying figure is, with permission, taken. Von Heuglin, in his Ornithologie Nordost-Afrikas (pp. 925-935), and A. Reichenow in Die Vogel Afrikas, have given more particular details of the ostrich's distribution in Africa. 2 Drs Finsch and Hartlaub quote a passage from Remusat
3 H. Lichtenstein, Reise im siidlichen Africa, ii. 42-45 (Berlin, 1812).were not for its numerous enemies " the multiplication of ostriches would be quite unexampled." Though sometimes assembling in troops of from thirty to fifty, and then generally associating with zebras or with some of the larger antelopes, ostriches commonly, and especially in the breeding season, live in companies of not more than four or five, one of which is a cock and the rest are hens. The latter lay their eggs in one and the same nest, a shallow pit scraped out by their feet, with the earth heaped around to form a kind of wall
bear the hard food on which their parents thrive. The greatest care is taken to place the nest where it may not be discovered, and the birds avoid being seen when going to or from.it, while they display great solicitude for their young
The question whether to recognize more than one species of ostrich has been continually discussed without leading to a satisfactory solution. While eggs from North Africa present a perfectly smooth surface, those from South Africa are pitted. Moreover northern birds have the skin of the parts not covered with feathers flesh-coloured, while this skin is bluish in southern birds, and hence the latter have been thought to need specific designation as S. australis. Examples from the Somali country have been described as forming a distinct species under the name of S. molybdophanes from the leaden colour of their naked parts. The great mercantile value of ostrich-feathers, and the increasing difficulty, due to the causes already mentioned, of procuring them from wild birds, has led to the formation in Cape Colony, Egypt, the French Riviera and elsewhere of numerous " ostrich-farms," on which these birds are kept in confinement, and at regular intervals deprived of their plumes. In favourable localities and with judicious management these establishments yield very considerable profit (see FEATHER). See, besides the works mentioned, E. D'Alton, Die Skelete der Straussartigen Vogel abgebildet and beschrieben (Bonn, 1827), P. L. Sclater, " On the Struthious Birds living in the Zoological Society's Menagerie, " Transactions, iv. p. 353, containing a fine representation (pl. 67), by J. Wolf, of the male Struthio camelus; J. Forest, L'Autruche (Paris, 1894) ; A. Douglass, Ostrich Farming in South Africa (London, 1881) ; modern anatomical work
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