Although the aepyornis

    or roc that lived in Madagascar， and

    the moa are extinct，

    the camel-sparrow， linked

    with them in size——the large sparrow

    Xenophon saw walking by a stream——was and is

    a symbol of justice.

    This bird watches his chicks with

    a maternal concentration-and he's

    been mothering the eggs

    at night six weeks——his legs

    their only weapon of defense.

    He is swifter than a horse； he has a foot hard

    as a hoof； the leopard

    is not more suspicious.  How

    could he， prized for plumes and eggs and young

    used even as a riding-beast， respect men

    hiding actor-like in ostrich skins， with the right hand

    making the neck move as if alive

    and from a bag the left hand strewing grain， that ostriches

    might be decoyed and killed！  Yes， this is he

    whose plume was anciently

    the plume of justice； he

    whose comic duckling head on its

    great neck revolves with compass-needle nervousness

    when he stands guard，

    in S-like foragings as he is

    preening the down on his leaden-skinned back.

    The egg piously shown

    as Leda's very own

    from which Castor and Pollux hatched，

    was an ostrich-egg.  And what could have been more fit

    for the Chinese lawn it

    grazed on as a gift to an

    emperor who admired strange birds， than this

    one， who builds his mud-made

    nest in dust yet will wade

    in lake or sea till only the head shows.

    Six hundred ostrich-brains served

    at one banquet， the ostrich-plume-tipped tent

    and desert spear， jewel-

    gorgeous ugly egg-shell

    goblets， eight pairs of ostriches

    in harness， dramatize a meaning

    always missed by the externalist.

    The power of the visible

    is the invisible； as even where

    no tree of freedom grows，

    so-called brute courage knows.

    Heroism is exhausting， yet

    it contradicts a greed that did not wisely spare

    the harmless solitaire

    or great auk in its grandeur；

    unsolicitude having swallowed up

    all giant birds but an alert gargantuan

    little-winged， magnificently speedy running-bird.

    This one remaining rebel

    is the sparrow-camel.