THE APPETITE OF AN OSTRICH.

Evening Star, Issue 3917, 13 September 1875, Page 3

THE APPETITE OF AN OSTRICH.

Hufuaglo, the showman, had (says Max Adder) an ostrich which he traded for a mule to a man named L p ech, who owns a place near New Hope. Leech read somewhere that ostriches are very valuable on account of their feathers, and ho intended to try the experiment of cultivating them, so he secured this one to begin with. Ho j turned it loose in the yard, and that j night it ate all the surface gravel off ; the walks, and it was busy breakfasting on the garden hoc when Ewcli came down to look after it. Ho fed it heartily, so as to keep down its appetite, but that morning it swallowed four horse shoes that were lying in a cart, and it disposed of Gft of trace chain, belonging to the subsoil plough, Leech was somewhat alarmed, but ho gave the bird as much supper as it would cat, and felt satisfied that its hunger would not rage during the night. Next morning, however, he was surprised to find that the ostrich had eaten a hole through the wall of the smoke-house, and hud chewed oil' all the door-knobs on that side of the dwelling. When Leech came out, the bird had swallowed the pump-handle, and was making an earnest hut. ineffectual attempt to take in the pump. Leech dissuaded it, however, and led it solemnly away. That day it ate nothing of a revolutionary character hut a set of Airs Leech’s old hoops, and when Leech ascertained this he collected all the second-hand hoop skirts that the neighbors had to spare, and fed them to the ostrich. It cleaned up the pile in less than an hour, and then it ate six of Fanny Leech’s croquet balls which were lying about in Hie grass, and swallowed-

the baby’s toy trum. That afternoon it protruded its bead through the kitchen window while the girl was washing the dinner dishes, and suddenly swallowed three tumblers, a gravy dish, and a broken butter crock. When Leech came home flint night ynd hemal the news he decided to siioA the i.h-d the first thing in the morning. He loaded ids gun for the purpose, and pm it in a shed outside the kitchen door. During the night an explosion was heard, and when Leech descended with a lan tern to ascertain the cause, he perceived the ostrich lying dead in the shed. It had swallowed the gun muzzle fo!emost, and had fired the weapon while gnawing at the Digger. Mr Leech has given up the idea of cultivating the ostrich. The bird is too eminently digestive for him.