Arabian ostrich

plural Arabian ostriches

1. historicalAn extinct subspecies of ostrich, †Struthio camelus syriacus, that lived on the Arabian Peninsula.

   Distinguished by its comparatively small size, the apparently extinct Arabian ostrich was fairly common until the time of World War I but as firearms became more plentiful in Arabia and it became possible to pursue birds in automobiles, numbers rapidly declined.

   2000, Errol Fuller, Extinct Birds, Oxford, page 32