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A large bird of the genus Struthio, of which Struthio camelus of Africa is the best known species. It has long and very strong legs, adapted for rapid running; only two toes; a long neck, nearly bare of feathers; and short wings incapable of flight. The adult male is about eight feet high.

A hook or clasp. The feather of an ostrich, fastened in her turban by an agraffe set with brilliants. Sir W. Scott.

Short-winged; -- applied to birds which can not fly, owing to their short wings, as the ostrich, cassowary, and emu.

a vessel, and when the water is pumped out the vessel is lifted. Camel bird (Zoöl.), the ostrich. -- Camel locust (Zoöl.), the mantis. -- Camel's thorn (Bot.), a low, leguminous shrub (Alhagi maurorum) of the Arabian desert, from which exudes a sweetish gum, which is one of the substances called manna.…

ird, of the genus Casuarius, found in the east Indies. It is smaller and stouter than the ostrich. Its head is armed with a kind of helmet of horny substance, consisting of plates overlapping each other, and it has a group of long sharp spines on each wing which are used as defensive organs. It is a shy bird, and runs…

le for its speed in running. Sometimes, in a wider sense, applied to running birds of the Ostrich family.

An order of running birds including the ostrich, emu, and allies; the Ratitaæ.

An extinct eocene bird from New Mexico, larger than the ostrich.

A genus of extinct, ostrichlike birds of gigantic size, which formerly inhabited New Zealand. See Moa. [Written also Deinornis.]

To unclose; to open; -- applied esp. to eggs in the sense of to hatch. The ostrich layeth her eggs under sand, where the heat of the discloseth them. Bacon.

y inhabiting the Island of Mauritius. It had short, half-fledged wings, like those of the ostrich, and a short neck and legs; -- called also dronte. It was related to the pigeons.

Having the structure of the palate like that of the ostrich and emu.

two species (Dromaius Novæ- Hollandiæ and D. irroratus), related to the cassowary and the ostrich. The emu runs swiftly, but is unable to fly. [Written also emeu and emew.]

One of the gigantic ostrichlike birds of the genus Æpiornis, only recently extinct. Its remains have been found in Madagascar. [Written also Æpyornis.]

Ostrich. [Obs.] Massinger.

hich includes all the typical birds, or all living birds except the penguins and birds of ostrichlike form.

A fan; especially, the fan carried before the pope on state occasions, made in ostrich and peacock feathers. Shipley.

A barb, or barbs, of a fine large feather, as of a peacock or ostrich, -- used in dressing artificial flies. [Written also herl.]

belonging to the Odontornithes. They had teeth, and were essentially carnivorous swimming ostriches. Several species are known. See Illust. in Append.

elf; second, the ideographic, consisting of symbols representing ideas, not sounds, as an ostrich feather is a symbol of truth; third, the phonetic, consisting of symbols employed as syllables of a word, or as letters of the alphabet, having a certain sound, as a hawk represented the vowel a.