19 JANUARY 1924, Page 14

[To the Editor of the SrEcricron.j SIR,—Xenophon and his light

cavalry encountered many ostriches on their march to Cunaxa through the Great Desert of " Arabia." But they did not see them playing Johnny Head-in-Sand. On the contrary, the members of the Persian Expeditionary Force Hunt who tried to ride them down soon gave up the chase, for the birds " kept their distance not only by legging it, but also by using their wings as sails " ; so that, as Xenophon plaintively relates, " nobody caught an ostrich "—which they could easily have done if the fable had been fact.—I am, Sir, &c., Besselsleigh Rectory, Abingdon, Berks. W. K. STRIDE.