AN EPICURE SIjVHLAEITY TO THE CAJIEL. 259 



a sight of them, hastily shut up her house, taking the key of 

 the door in her hand. No sooner, however, had she arrived 

 on the spot where the birds were kept, when one of them 

 stalked gravely up to the lady, and, snatching the iron in- 

 strument out of her hand, deliberately, and to her great hor- 

 ror, swallowed it, actualhj shutting Tier out of her own house I 



" Nothing," says Methuen, in his " Life in the Wilderness," 

 when speaking of a female ostrich that came under his im- 

 mediate notice, " disturbed the ostrich's digestion : dyspepsia 

 was a thing ' undreamt of in its philosophy.' One day, a 

 Muscovy duck brought a promising brood of ducklings into 

 the w^orld, and with maternal pride conducted them forth 

 into the yard. Up, with solemn and measured stride, walk- 

 ed the ostrich, and, wearing the most mild, benignant cast of 

 face, swallowed them all, one after the other, like so many 

 oysters, regarding the indignant hissings and bristling plu- 

 mage of the hapless mother with stoical indifference." 



The ostrich is gregarious, and is met with in troops vary- 

 ing from a few individuals to as many as fifty. Singularly 

 enough, it is never known to associate with other birds, but, 

 preferring quadrupeds, is often found in company with the 

 zebra, the springbok, the gnoo, &c. Indeed, in many re- 

 spects it bears a striking resemblance to four-footed animals, 

 such as in its strong, jointed legs and cloven hoofs, its long, 

 muscular neck, its gruff voice, the absence of the elevated 

 central ridge of the breast bone, so generally characteristic 

 of birds, besides other similarities already mentioned. But, 

 perhaps, when compared with the camel, the affinity becomes 

 still more striking. Both are "furnished with callous pro- 

 tuberances on the chest and on the abdomen, on which they 

 support themselves when at rest, and they both lie down in 

 the same manner." In both, the feet and stomach are some- 

 what similarly constructed ; and if we add to this their 

 capabilities of subsisting on a scanty and stunted vegetation, 

 their endurance of thirst, and their formation in general, 



