Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/132

104 cock take a standing jump on to the top of a wall five feet high, beyond which were his chicks. When accustomed to run in cut-up veld they become very clever at leaping across sluits. They do not stride over, but, coming almost to a standstill at the edge of each sluit, jump with both feet, often alighting on one foot and striding on at once with the other, like a good steeplechaser.

Even as a chick the Ostrich is a powerful swimmer. I have known several birds swim some distance down the Great Fish River when it was running fairly strong, and have heard, on what seems trustworthy evidence, of a cock that was carried a long way down the same river when it was running nearly level with its precipitous banks in the stormy season; he was some hours in the water before he could get out, but emerged unhurt.

All Ostriches, adults as well as chicks, have a strange habit known as "waltzing." When chicks are let out from a kraal in the early morning they will often start away at a great pace. After running for a few hundred yards they will all stop, and, with raised wings, spin round rapidly for some time, often until quite giddy, when a broken leg occasionally occurs. Adult birds, when running in large camps, will often, if the veld is good, do the same, especially if startled in the fresh of the early morning. A troop of birds waltzing, in full plumage, is a remarkably pretty sight.

Vicious cocks "roll" when challenging to fight, or when wooing the hen. The cock will suddenly bump down on to his "knees" (the ankle-joint), open his wings, making a straight line across his breast, and then swing them alternately backward and forward (keeping the line straight) as if on a pivot, each wing as it comes forward being raised while that going backward is depressed. The neck is lowered until the head is on a level with the back, and the head and neck swing from side to side with the wings, the back of the head striking with a loud click against the ribs, first on the one side and then on the other. The click is produced by the skin of the neck, which then bulges loosely just under the beak, and for some distance downwards. While rolling, every feather over the whole body is on end, and the plumes are open, like a large white fan. At such a time the bird sees very