“Where the zebra wantonly tosses his mane, With wild hoof scorning the desolate plain; And the fleet-footed ostrich over the waste Speeds like a horseman who travels in haste.” There the soft pads under the _two toes_ of each foot rebound from the yielding sand as his well-bent legs straighten with a jerk one after the other, making his body bound forward at full speed. Then he raises his wings, sometimes on one side, sometimes on both, to balance himself, and to serve as sails to help him; and with this help his stride is sometimes as great as twenty feet, and he dashes along at the rate of twenty-six miles an hour. He is not so heavy as he looks, for many, of his bones are hollow, his feathers are downy and soft, and his wing-bones are small; and it is to his featherless thighs that you must look for the strong muscles to which he trusts for all his speed, as with outstretched neck he bounds across the plain. If we go back to long bygone times, before the lion, the leopard, and other ferocious animals found their way into Africa, we can imagine how this great running bird took possession of the land and became too heavy for flight; while as time rolled on, he gained that strength of body and leg which now is his great protection as he dashes along, his four or five wives following in his train. The ostriches can travel over wide distances from one oasis to another, feeding on seeds and fruit, beetles, locusts, and small animals, and fighting fiercely with legs and beak if attacked. And when the springtime comes the wives lay their eggs in a hole scooped in the sand, or often in some dry patch of ground surrounded by high grass, till sixteen or twenty are ready; and then they take their turn (the father among the rest) of sitting upon them, at least at night, even if they leave them to the heat of the sun by day. And when six weeks have passed the father grows impatient, and, pressing the large bare pad in front of his chest against each egg in turn, breaks it, pulls out the membranous bag with the young bird in it, shakes him out, and, swallowing the bag, goes on to another. In this way the whole downy brood are soon set free, and begin picking up small stones to prepare their gizzard or muscular second stomach for grinding, while their parents scrape the sand and find and break up food for them.