612 AVES— OSTRICH. 



and back ; and those, like the former, also are of different colors. The head 

 and upper part of the neck are covered with hair. 



At the end of each wing there is a kind of spur, almost like the quill of a 

 porcupine. It is an inch long, being hollow, and of a horny substance. 

 There are two of these on each wing ; the largest of which is at the ex- 

 tremity of the bone of the wing, and the other a foot lower. The neck 

 seems to be more slender in proportion to that of other birds, from its not 

 being furnished with feathers. 



The thighs are very fleshy and large, being covered with a white skin, 

 inclining to redness, and wrinkled in the manner of a net, whose meshes 

 will admit the end of a finger. Some have very small feathers here and 

 there on the thighs ; and others again have neither feathers nor wrinkles. 

 The legs are covered before with scales. The end of the foot is cloven, and 

 has two very large toes, which, like the leg, are covered with scales. These 

 toes are of equal sizes. The largest, which is on the inside, is seven inches 

 long, including the claw, which is near three fourths of an inch in length, 

 and almost as broad. The other toe is but four inches long, and is without 

 a claw. 



The ostrich is a native only of the torrid regions of Africa and Arabia, 

 and has never bred out of those countries which first produced it. Though, 

 however, the climate of France be much less warm than that of Barbary, 

 yet some ostriches have been known to lay in the royal menagerie at Ver- 

 sailles ; but the gentlemen of the Academy have in vain attempted to make 

 these eggs produce by an artificial process. This bird, so disqualified for 

 society with man, inhabits, from preference, the most solitary and horrid 

 deserts, where there are few vegetables to clothe the surface of the earth, 

 and where the rain never comes to refresh it. The Arabians assert that the 

 ostrich never drinks ; and the place of its habitation seems to confirm the 

 assertion. In these formidable regions ostriches are seen in large flocks, 

 which to the distant spectator appear like a regiment of cavalry, and have 

 often alarmed a whole caravan. There is no desert, how barren soever, but 

 is capable of supplying these animals with provision ; they eat almost every 

 thing; and these barren tracts are thus doubly grateful, as they afford both 

 food and security. In Southern Africa they are exceedingly injurious to the 

 farmers, as they will destroy a field of wheat so effectually as not to leave 

 a single ear behind; and this operation they perform without danger to 

 themselves, as they are so vigilant and so swift, that it is almost impossible 

 to get a shot at them. The ostrich is of all animals the most voracious. It 

 will devour leather, grass, hair, iron, stones, or any thing that is given. 

 Nor are its powers of digestion less in such things as are digestible. Those 

 substances which the coats of the stomach cannot soften, pass whole; so 

 that glass, stones, or iron, are excluded in the form in which they are de- 

 voured. All metals, indeed, which are swallowed by any animal, lose a 

 part of their weight, and often the extremities of their figure, from the 



