The ostrich is generally seen quietly feeding on some spot where no one can approach him without being detected by his wary eye.

As the wagon moves along far to the windward he thinks it is intending to circumvent him, so he rushes up a mile or so from the leeward, and so near to the front oxen that one sometimes gets a shot at the silly bird.
When he begins to run all the game in sight follow his example.

I have seen this folly taken advantage of when he was feeding quietly in a valley open at both ends.

A number of men would commence running, as if to cut off his retreat from the end through which the wind came; and although he had the whole country hundreds of miles before him by going to the other end, on he madly rushed to get past the men, and so was speared.

He never swerves from the course he once adopts, but only increases his speed.
When the ostrich is feeding his pace is from twenty to twenty-two inches; when walking, but not feeding, it is twenty-six inches; and when terrified, as in the case noticed, it is from eleven and a half to thirteen and even fourteen feet in length.