r 53 ] 



1865 in the Mauritius by M. de Bissy, for the purpose of utilising 

 the soil of a marsh for manure, ledtothediscovery of various bones, 

 including those of the deer and tortoise. Mr Clark, who had long 

 had an opinion respecting the possibility of finding bones of the 

 dodo, told M. de Bissy his views. This led to a systematic ex- 

 ploration, and the discovery of many bones of that bird, and now, 

 in the British Museum, might be seen an almost perfect skeleton. 



AFRICAN OSTRICHES. 



Leaving the region of the comparatively unknown, we came to 

 well-known examples of wingless or brevipennate birds, all belonging 

 to the true Cursores ; these were the ostriches, the emeu, and the 

 cassowaries. The best known species was the ostrich, Sti-uthio 

 Camelus, an inhabitant of the African Continent. This bird, which 

 had been celebrated since the most remote antiquity, and a dish of 

 whose brains was an epicurean dish in Old Rome, measured from 

 six to eight feet in height ; its feet consisted of only two toes ; the 

 head and neck were nearly naked, the general plumage very lax, the 

 quill feathers of the wings and tail remarkable for the length of 

 their barbs, which, though fui-nished with barbules, were com- 

 pletely sepai'ated fi'om each other, and formed the well-known 

 ostrich feathers of commerce. The ostriches lived together in large 

 flocks, feeding upon gi-ass, grain, wild melons, &c., and, like the 

 gallinaceous birds, which they resembled in their food, had an 

 enormous crop and a strong gizard. In a state of nature it picked 

 up and swallowed small pebbles; but in confinement it had 

 swallowed brickbats, knives, old shoes, scraps of wood, tenpenny 

 nails, bits of iron, and feathers; one went to the length of 

 swallowing in succession the whole of a bi'ood of young 

 ducks — whether impelled by normal hunger, a morbid appetite, 

 or sheer mischief, was an open question. Another tried 

 to swallow its blanket. The voracity of the ostrich formoly 

 gave rise to the belief that it fed on iron. The African 

 ostrich was polygamous and gregarious. The female scratched 

 a hole in the sand, in which she lay ten or twelve eggs in 

 an upright position. The male and female both sat upon the eggs 

 during the night, and this sitting, supplemented by the heat of the 

 sun, hatched those in the middle of the nest, the outer ones, when 

 the centre eggs were hard and the young birds nearly hatched, 

 being quite fit for food ; the eggs weighed upon an average 31bs., 



