Ostrich truths
From Mrs C. Visser
Sir: How long will you and other quite intelligent people perpetuate this ridiculous nonsense of "ostriches burying their heads in the sand? '' They never do. I refer in particular to the latest mention in your second leader "The Gravity of the Tory Situation" (October 16). Please allow me to explain. Selective evolution is of paramount importance. The female ostrich broods her eggs and chicks during daylight hours. Being dun-coloured, she blends in superbly with the tawny, dun-coloured surroundings of her habitat and from ground level or from above, she looks like a rounded earth mound or stone. If, however, she kept that long. snake-like neck and head erect, she would give away her position for miles around. Therefore she lowers her neck to ground level and so escapes detection from ground predators. From the air, the neck simply looks like a sort of stick.
But she never buries her head. Her eyes are always wide 'open, on the watch for any approach of danger. The cock ostrich broods the eggs, etc, at night when his distinctive black and white colouring will pass unnoticed. Whether or not he, too, lowers his neck to ground level I can't say for certainty. Possibly he does — even those strong stringy neck muscles probably need to be relaxed or rested!
However, I imagine it is quite impossible to get this message across to a public which is convinced that an ostrich buries its head in the sand, hoping thus to make itself invisible.
Incidentally, on quite another topic, your proof-readers seem to have improved recently. Their first efforts made your periodical well nigh unreadable. Even now it occasionally require some ingenuity to get at what was originally written.
C. Visser Pinelands, Cape, South Africa
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