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Shannon News, 13 August 1929, Page 3

In the course of a lecture on “ Natural History in Shakespeare’s time” at the Auckland; University College, Professor Sperrin Johnson mentioned several interesting superstitions regarding the ostrich, some of which have persisted to- the present day. These were mainly concerned with the bird’s alleged .digestive powers. Purchas wrote: “The ostrich is a foolish bird that forgetteth his . nest, and leavetli his eggs for the sun and sand to hatch, that eateth anything, even the hardest iron, that hearetli nothing.” . Another writer believed that the ostrich’s dinner consisted of a church door key and a horseshoe. They were credited with burying their heads in the sand or a bush when embarrassed, and of leaving their eggs in the sun to be hatched. The fate of the ostrich in the Auckland Zoo, which died recently as the result of swallowing a copper coin,was eloquent proof of the fallacy of belief in the bird’s supernatural powers of digestion.