Ostriches Stick Their Heads in the Sand

Pliny is credited with popularizing the idea that ostriches bury their heads in the sand when they're frightened of something. He wrote a book called natural history, which was effectively an encyclopaedia written two thousand years ago. It led to a false narrative about ostrich behavior, which pliny recorded in his natural history book. But it did survive as a phrase ands its use to day to indicate a combination of cowardice and idiocy. And so plaine was very unfair on the ostriches. The great irony of pliny the elder is his death.