Ostriches

The Mountfords all in plumes, like estridges were seen.

Ostriches are large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member(s) of the genus Struthio. The ostrich is distinctive in its appearance, with a long neck and legs and the ability to run at maximum speeds of about 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph), the top land speed of any bird. The Ostrich is the largest living species of bird and lays the largest egg of any living bird.

Sourced

• Prince Edward all in gold, as he great Jove had been,
  The Mountfords all in plumes, like estridges were seen.
  • Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion (1613), Stanza 22.

• Like the ostrich, head under wing
  When the roaring storm breaks,
  So many people take refuge
  Under the soft pillow
  Of specious arguments.
  • Georges Rouault, Le Cirque de l'étoile filante. (1938).

• Rahel could see it coursing through his veins, as clearly as an egg travelling down an ostrich's neck.
  • Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (1997), p. 232-33.

• All furnish'd, all in arms;
  All plum'd, like estridges that with the wind
  Baited, like eagles having lately bath'd.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I (c. 1597), Act IV, Scene 1, line 97.