he farmer.

In ordinary circumstances the ostrich is a mild, inoffensive creature--
indeed the female is always so; but when a male ostrich is what I may
style nesting--when, enclosed in a large field or paddock, he guards his
wives and his eggs--no lion of the desert, no tiger of the jungle or
kloof, is more ferocious or more savagely bent on the death of any or
all who dare to intrude on his domain.

The power of the ostrich, too, is quite equal to his strength of will.
He stands from seven to nine feet in height, and is very heavy.

His tremendous legs are his only weapons, and his kick is almost, if not
quite, equal to that of a horse. Possessing enormous feet, with two
toes on each, the horny points of which can cut and rip like cold
chisels, he rushes at an adversary and kicks, or hits out,
straightforward, like a prize-fighter. No unarmed man on earth could
stand long before a furious male ostrich without being killed. But
there are one or two weak points about him, which abate somewhat the
danger of his attack. In the first place his power lies only in his
mighty legs, the thighs of which--blue-grey and destitute of feathers--
are like two shoulders of mutton. With his beak he can do nothing, and
his long neck is so weak that if you can only lay hold of it and pull
his head to the ground you are comparatively safe, for he cannot kick
effectively in that position, and devotes all his energies, when thus
caught, to useless attempts to pull his head out of your grasp. But,
then, how are you to get hold of that neck--the root of which stands
nearly as high as your own head--in the face of two claws that go like
battering-rams wrought by lightning? As well might you attempt to lay
hold of a prize-fighter's nose while his active fists are darting out at
you.

A powerful, active man has been known, when attacked while unarmed, to
spring on the bird, grasp a wing with one arm and the body with the
other, and hug it, but there is great danger in this method, because in
the attempt you are pretty sure to receive at least one kick, and that,
if it takes effect, will be quite sufficient to put you out of action.
It also requires much power of endurance, for, hugging a creature that
is strong enough to dance about and lift you off your legs in its wild
efforts to get rid of you, must be hard work. Supposing that you do
succeed, however, in holding on until you work your way along to the
neck and get the head into