OSTRICHES. 33 



The StriilliionhKliinls arc now nearly coiiliiu'il to the southern hemisphere, and the 

 living forms are only the last survivors of a once numerous order, which also domi- 

 nated in Europe, and jirohaMy Xorlli America, since, from the strata underlaying 

 London, several fossil remains have been described, the so-called Mucrornis, said to lie 

 related to the emu, and the so-called Meyulornis emuiiuts of similar nttinitics. Also 

 from \ew Mexico is a fossil ostrich known, the Diatri/tmt (/!y<(>itea of Cope. 



It may be interesting to ipiote as a conclusion Mr. Wallace's i<leas as to the origin 

 of the birds in question, and how he accounts for their present disconnected distri- 

 bution. 



Din-ing the early ]ieriod, he conteiuls, when the great southern continents — South 

 America, Africa, and Australia — were equally free from the incureions of the 

 destructive felines of the noi'th, the Struthiones, or ostrich type of birds, was probably 

 developed into its exist iTig forms. It is not at all necessary to supj)ose that these three 

 continents were at any time united, in order to account for the distribution of these 

 great terrestrial birds. . . . The ancestral Struthious type may, like the marsujiial, 

 liave once spread over the larger portion of the globe; but as higher forms, esj)ecially 

 Carnivora, became developed, it woidd be exterminated everywhere but in those 

 regions where it was free from their attacks. In each of these it would develop into 

 special forms adaj>ted to surrounding conditions ; and the large size, great strength, 

 and excessive sjteed of the ostrich may have been a comjiaratively late develiqinient 

 caused by its exposure to the attacks of enemies which rendered such modification 

 necessary. 



The ostrich — the largest, and the first to open the series of the living birds — l)elongs 

 to the genus Stnithio, which alone constitutes the family STnirnioxiDJE and the 

 super-family STIiUTIIIOIDE^E. A native of the plains and deserts of Africa, it 

 lias been known to civilized man since the beginning of the history of the western 

 nations, noted for its size, its swiftness of foot, and the beauty of its curled tail and 

 wing plumes, which, since time immemorial, have been used as signs of distinction 

 and as ornament, therefore being the object of an important trade on the dark con- 

 tinent. Huge fans of ostrich-plumes belong to the attributives of the African anil 

 Oriental rulers of to-day as they did during the time of the Egyj)tian Pharaohs; the 

 ladies of olden liome ])rized its unrivaled feathers as highly as any slave of the ])resent 

 fashion, and live ostriches were among the strange animals which, nearly two thousand 

 years ago, were exhibited to the gaze of the ]io]iulace in the aren:is ami amphitheatres, 

 while to-day that giant is indispensable to any menagerie or zoological garden of repu- 

 tation. Hottentots and other African savages kill him for the feathers, Arabian sheiks 

 and English tourists hunt him for sjiort, lions and other wihl Iteasts kill him Avhenever 

 they find an opport\inity ; and although the ostrich is one of the few birds deprived 

 of the capacity of flight, yet he is not exterminated, nor is he likely to become so in a 

 near future, for several reasons: his swiftness of foot, his great ]>roibicliveness, ami 

 his recent domestication, which ]iromises to increase the number of living ostriches 

 by ten for each one destroyed by the repeating rifle. 



The nearest allies of the true ostriches are the South American naudus, which dilTer 

 from the other birds of the same order by having the wing-bones comparatively well 

 developed, especially Ijy a long humerus, and there being three fingers on the hand. 

 They have also a strong ambiens muscle, which is absent in the cassowaries and emus ; the 

 gall-bladder is absent. Inter se the African and the American ostriches are distinguislied 

 by tlie former iiaving two toes only, the third and fourth, respectively, with four and 



VOL. IV. — 3 



