Struthio camelus
English: Ostrich.
A trituration proving done by students of the South African Faculty of Homeopathy, in Cape Town, November 2010.
Zoology
The ostrich is a bird that has adapted to the loss of flight, and has developed fast aggressive impulses to defend itself. No longer free to take to the heavens, the ostrich has to fight, and run for its life, and its food. Historically the ostrich feather was in great demand to adorn women of high society. Feathers are also used for such mundane things as feather dusters. In recent years, ostriches have been farmed more for their meat and leather, than for their feathers. These days, people are more concerned with being able to feed themselves, than adorning oneself. Ostrich eggs are large and have been used by humans for the past 6000 years. Used to carry and store water by the Bushmen, the eggs are also made into ornaments, lamps, and of course consumed as food.
Ostriches live in very dry arid regions of Southern Africa, where they survive on anything they can pick up in the field, mainly plants and insects. These birds swallow pebbles necessary to masticate the food in their stomachs. When approached, ostriches can be very aggressive; their kick can cause serious injuries. They do tolerate being ridden on by tourists, and raced in various parts of Africa. Ostriches live in large groups during the breeding season, but are more often seen in pairs. A male will have a harem of 2 to 7 females.
Many females lay their eggs in one nest. Hatched by the female during the day the male sits on them at night. The nests are a simple hollow in the ground, and their colors are well suited to camouflage them. Ostriches are particularly attracted to bright shiny objects.
Ostriches have been hunted since prehistoric times, mainly for their feathers, meat, skin and eggs. In southern Egypt, Libya and the Sudan eggshells beads, pendants, and vessels were manufactured. Eggshells have been found in graves and decorated eggshells were used from the Predynastic Period onward and seem to have had a religious meaning; sometimes clay eggs were substituted, and in one instance an eggshell was substituted for the head of the deceased. Eggshell jewellery was common, mainly carved into little disc-shaped beads strung as simple necklaces, earrings, forehead ornaments or clothing decorations. Pendants have also been found which appear to have been amulets. Later, in Coptic Egypt, the egg came to symbolize the birth and resurrection of Christ and was often found as a decoration in churches. The ostrich plume was the symbol of the goddess Maat – she was depicted wearing it on her headdress. It was the weight against which the heart of the deceased was weighed in the Judgment of the dead. According to Horapollo: “When they would symbolise a man who distributes justice impartially to all, they depict the feather of an ostrich; for this bird has the feathers of its wings equal on every side, beyond all other birds.”
Typically, during mating season, cocks will defend their own small territory from their rivals, while groups of hens will roam around, visiting potential mates. Cocks typically use hisses and other sounds to claim ownership of a harem of two to seven hens. Male ostriches are polygamous and will mate with multiple females, and females will mate with multiple males, however, they will form a life-long mated pair with one "dominant" female.
Lieterature
Proving of Struthio camelus – the African ostrich by Danny Dushan Ron, Israel, 14th August, 2011 Remedy potentised by, and available from, Super-Pharm, Israel Pharmacy email: professional@super-pharm.co.il
Ostrich Eggshell; Jacke Phillips, Ostrich Eggshell Willeke Wendrich (ed.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles. http://escholarship.
http://www.avianweb.com/ostriches.html and http://www.fao.org/ag/aga/agap/frg/feedback/war/v6200b/v6200b02.htm.
The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo, Horapollo Niliacus, 4th century A.D., pg118, http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/hh/hh191.htm Photo ©2011 Cathy; http://www.flickr.com/photos/sacathyl/.