"The wing of the ostrich [is] flaunted ; [Is her] pinion perchance [like that of the] pious [stork], or [her] feather? [Nay], for the will leave to the earth her eggs, Even upon [tlie] dust will she warm tliem ; While she has forj^otten thnt a foot may crush it, Even the living [thing] of the field trample it.
She has harshly taken her young for [those] not [be- longing] to her. In vain her labor [of parturition, since as to hatching she is] without dread. For God has made her oblivious of wisdom, Nor apportioned to her [a share] in understandiuo-. [Yet] whenever aloft she may lash [herself for flight], She will laugh at the horse and at his rider."
The waving of the wing is well illustrated by the de- scription of Leo Africanus (Descr. Afr. ix, 55) and of /Elian (Anim. ii, 27), while the fact that the plumage is dark (gray or black) on the back, shoulders, and wings, and elsewhere white, is a striking resemblaiiice to the stork. The statement in the 14th verse, that the os- trich leaves her eggs in the sand carelessly, arises prob- ably from the fact that a few eggs are often found at a short distance from the nest, supposed to be placed there as food for the j'oung when hatched (comp. Leo Afric. ut sup.; Vaillant, Reis. nuch. Africa, ii, 210; Bochart, p. 8G3). As to the folly spoken of in ver. 17, it is a general belief among the Arabs that the ostrich is a very stupid bird; indeed they have a proverb, "Stupid as an ostrich ;" and Bochart (Hieroz. ii, 865) has given us five points on which this bird is supposed to deserve its character. They may be briefly stated thus: (1) Because it will swallow iron, stones, etc.; (2) Because when it is hunted it thrusts its head into a bush, and imagines the hunter does not see it; (3) Because it al- lows itself to be deceived and captured in the manner described by Strabo (xvi, 772, ed. Kramer); (4) Be- cause it neglects its eggs; (5) Because it has a small head and few brains. Such is the opinion the Arabs have expressed with regard to the ostrich ; a bird, how- ever, which by no means deserves such a character, as travellers have frequently testified. "So wary is the bird," says Mr. Tristram (Ibis, ii, 73), "and so open are the vast plains over which it roams, that no ambus- cades or artifices can be employed, and the vulgar re- source of dogged perseverance is the only mode of pur- suit." Dr. Shaw (Travels, ii, 345) relates as an in- stance of want of sagacity in the ostrich, that he "saw one swallow several leaden bullets, scorching hot from the mould." We may add that not unfrequcntly the stones and other substances which ostriches swallow prove fatal to them. In this one respect, perhaps, there is some foundation for the character of stupidity at- tributed to them (riiny, x, 1 ; comp. Diod. Sic. ii, 50). Mr. Tristram, however, remarks, "The necessity for swallowing stones, etc., may be understood from the favorite food of the tame ostriches I have seen being the date-stone, the hardest of vegetable substances" (Nat. Hist, of the Bible, p. 239). The statement that when erect " she scorneth the horse and his rider," may be referred both to the height and the swiftness of the bird. The ostrich is the largest of all known birds, and perhaps the swiftest of all cursorial animals. The cap- ture of an ostrich is often made at the sacrifice of the lives of two horses (Ibis, ii, 73). Its strength is enor- mous. The wings are useless for flight, but when the bird is pursued they are extended and act as sails be- fore the wind. The ostrich's feathers so much prized are the long white plumes of the wings. The best come to us from Barbary and the west coast of Africa. The ostrich belongs to the family Struthionidce, order Cu?-soi-es.
Os'wald, St., an English saint, was king of Ber- nicia, in Northumbria, England, from 634 to 642. He was a son of Ethelfrith, who was born in 604, and who be- came one of the most powerful S.ixon monarchs. Os- wald was noted for his piety and charitable nature. As a youth, while living in banishment among the Scots in Ireland, he had been instructed in Christianity and baptized by pious monks, and through their influence
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