I seem to remember hearing once that there is some sort of connection between 'ostrich' and 'Austria', in that the German for 'Austria' is 'Oesterreich' (I think lit. 'Eastern Reich/Land') which is corrupted to give us 'ostrich'. Somewhere along the thread there was also the fact that the German for an ostrich is 'ein Strauss'. And I think this was supposed to be something to do with Austria as well. Does anyone know the actual etymology of 'ostrich' and if it is related to the German for 'Austria', how is that exactly? And what about the German for ostrich being 'Strauss'?