364 AVES. 



and regimen give them numerous affinities with the Galli- 

 nacese. 



It appears as if all the muscular power which is at the com- 

 mand of nature, would be insufficient to move such immense 

 wings as would be required to support their massive bodies in 

 the air. The sternum is a simple buckler, and is deficient in 

 that ridge which is found in all other birds. The pectoral 

 muscles are thin and delicate, but the posterior extremities 

 regain what the wings have lost the muscles of the thighs, 

 and of the legs in particular, being enormously thick and stout. 



The thumb is always deficient. (1) They form two genera. 



Struthio, Lin. 



The Ostriches have wings furnished with loose and flexible feathers, 

 but still sufficiently long to increase their speed in running. Every 

 one knows the elegance of these slender-stemmed plumes, the barbs 

 of which, although furnished with little hooks, always remain sepa- 

 rate, contrary to what takes place in most other birds. Their beak 

 is horizontally depressed, of a moderate length, and blunt at the end; 

 their tongue short, and rounded like a crescent; their eye large, and 

 the lid fringed with lashes; their legs and tarsi very long. They have 

 an enormous crop, a large sac between the crop and gizzard, volu- 

 minous intestines, long caeca, and a vast reservoir in which the urine 

 accumulates as in a bladder, being the only birds which can be said 

 to urine. The penis is very large, and is frequently exposed, (2) 



But two species are known, each of which might form a separate 

 genus. 



Struthio camelus, L.; Enl. 457.(3) (The Ostrich of the East- 

 ern Continent.) But two toes, the external of which is one half 

 shorter than its fellow, and has no nail. This bird, so highly 

 celebrated from the earliest ages, abounds in the sandy deserts 

 of Arabia and Africa. It attains the height of six or eight feet, 

 lives in great troops, lays eggs, each weighing nearly three 



(1) The number of the phalanges is as follows, commencing with the inter- 

 nal toe : 



Ostrich, 4, 5: 



Nandou and Cassoway, 3, 4, 5: 



Which amounts to the numbers common among birds. 



(2) ForUie gcnito-urinary organs of birds, and those of the Ostrich in particu- 

 lar, consult the Mem. of Geoffroy Saint-Hillaire, Mem. du Mus., torn. XV. 



(3) See also the beautiful figure drawn by Marechal in the Menag. du Mus. 

 of Laccp. and Cuvier, copied Vieill. Galer. pi. 223. 



