354 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
and capable of immense muscular effort, thus enabling them to run 
with extraordinary fleetness. 
The deduction to be drawn from these facts is, that the Brevi- 
pennes are essentially land birds. ‘This limitation of their habitat 
necessitated certain modifications in the sternum, which, instead of 
a prominent edge of bone in the centre, as in other birds, only pre- 
sents one uniform breast-plate. Again, most of the Brevipennes are 
birds of large size, and, in certain circumstances, manifest remarkable 
vigour. 
This group comprehends the Ostrich, Emu, Rhea, Cassowary, and 
the Apteryx. 
The head of the Ostrich (Struthio camelus, PLATE XI.) is naked 
and callous, with a short bill, much depressed and rounded at the 
point ; its legs are half uaked, muscular, and fleshy ; the tarsi are 
long and rough, terminating in two toes pointing forward, one of 
which is shorter than the other and has no claw; the wings are very 
short, and formed of soft and flexible feathers; the tail taking the 
form of a plume. 
There is but one species of the Ostrich ; it is sparsely diffused 
over the interior of Africa, and is rarely found in Asia except perhaps 
in Arabia. It is the largest member of the Grallatores, generally 
measuring six feet in height, and occasionally attaining nine feet ; its 
weight varies from twenty to a hundred pounds. 
The Ostrich has been known from the most remote antiquity. It 
is spoken of in the sacred writings, for Moses forbade the Hebrews 
to eat of its flesh, as being ‘‘ unclean food.” The Romans, however, 
far from sharing the views of the Jewish legislator, considered it a 
great culinary luxury. In the days of the Emperors they were con- 
sumed in considerable numbers; and we read that the luxurious 
Heliogabalus carried his magnificence so far as to cause a dish 
composed of the brains of 600 ostriches to be served at a feast: 
this must have cost an almost incalculable sum. In former 
days it was a favourite dish with the tribes of Northern Africa. At 
the present date the Arabs content themselves with using its fat as 
an outward application in certain diseases, especially rheumatic 
affections ; and they derive from it, as they say, very beneficial 
effects. | 
The natives of Africa call the Ostrich “ the camel of the desert,” 
just as the Latins denominated it S¢vwthio camelus. There is, in fact, 
some likeness between them. This resemblance consists in the 
length of the neck and legs, in the form of the toes, and in the 
callosities which are found on the lower stomach of both. In some 
a 
