Ostriches

The Mountfords all in plumes, like estridges were seen.

Ostriches (Struthio camelus) are either one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member(s) of the genus Struthio, which is in the ratite family. The ostrich shares the order Struthioniformes with the kiwis, emus, rheas and cassowaries. It is distinctive in its appearance, with a long neck and legs, and can run at up to about 70 km/h (19 m/s; 43 mph), the fastest land speed of any bird. The ostrich is the largest living species of bird and lays the largest eggs of any living bird (extinct elephant birds of Madagascar and the giant moa of New Zealand laid larger eggs).

Quotes

• The ostrich [with] her eggs on the hillside. She receives those eggs as something to carry: the bird knows how to keep watch at night.
  • Anonymous, Nanshe and the birds (Nanshe C), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature.

• 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.