II STRUTHIONIDAE 27 
I. STRUTHIONES. 
Fam. Struthionidae.—These birds are distinguished from all 
others by having only two toes—the third and fourth—the ter- 
minal phalanges of which are shortened and bear thick stunted 
claws, that of the outer toe being commonly absent. The whole toot, 
including the long scutellated metatarsus, is exceptionally stout, 
and the toes are padded beneath. The beak is short, broad, and 
depressed, with deeply split gape; the head is small, with large 
eyes; the neck very long; the wing- and drooping tail- feathers 
are large and soft, with broad equal 
—the plumes of commerce 
vanes. The fureula and syringeal muscles are wanting, nor is 
there any aftershaft. 
Struthio camelus, the Ostrich or “ Camel-bird” of North Africa, 
now extends from Barbary to Arabia, and even to Mesopotamia, 
though no longer found, as of old, in Egypt or Central Asia, its 
former occurrence in Baluchistan being somewhat open to question. 
It is black with white wings and tail, having a flesh-coloured neck 
covered with brownish down, and partially bare tibiae of the same 
hue. The female and young male are almost entirely cinereous, 
while the chicks are clothed with bristly yellowish-white down 
with blackish stripes. The eggs of the typical northern bird have 
a surface like ivory, while those from Southern Africa are marked 
with close-set pits, whence some authorities recognise a different 
species (S. australis) in the latter region, distinguishable, moreover, 
by the bluish colour of the naked parts. Examples from Somali- 
land and the adjoining districts of East Africa to Lake Tanganyika 
are separated as S. molybdophanes, on account of the leaden colour 
of the unfeathered portions, coupled with a red patch on the front 
of the metatarsus. The eggs are smoother than in the southern 
species, but similarly pitted. The fossil forms S. asvaticus from 
the Pliocene of the Siwalik Hills of India, and S. karatheodori 
from the Upper Miocene of Samos complete the family, while S. 
(Struthiolithus) chersonensis has been founded on a petrified egg 
from the government of Cherson in South Russia. 
The Ostrich stands about eight feet high, being the largest of 
existing birds; it frequents sandy wastes and dry arid localities, 
such as are found in the Sahara and the plains and valleys of 
Southern Africa, while districts studded with low bushes are not 
unfrequently tenanted. Though the fable of the head being hidden 
