OSTRICHES. 



319 



culiar habits : these, as far as wings and flight are con- 

 cerned, having scarcely a right to be classed amongst 

 birds, as they naver quit the ground, and know nothing 

 of the power possessed by others of the feathered race, 

 of soaring aloft, and fleeing away like the Dove, should 

 they wish to seek for food, or repose, in a distant coun- 

 try. These birds are the Ostrich, the Emu, or the Cas- 

 sowary, and one or two others little known. 



Of these the Ostrich is the most common ; its beauti- 

 ful light plumes have long been used as ornaments in 

 ladies' head-dresses ; and to this, probably, as it was 

 diligently sought after as a valuable prize to the captor,, 

 we are indebted for all we 

 know of its natural history, 

 though still much remains 

 unknown, for no bird has 

 been more misrepresented; 

 first, as a parent, who, after 

 laying her eggs in the desert, 

 left them to be hatched by 

 the sun, and cherished no 

 affection for her young. This, 

 indeed, is the character she 

 bore in the ancient days of 

 the prophet Jeremiah, who 

 compares the Ostrich to the 

 unnatural mothers of Zion : 

 Even the sea monsters draw 

 out the breast., they give suck 

 to their young ones ; the, 

 daughter of my people is be- 

 come cruel, like the Ostriches 

 in the wilderness. (Lam. iv. 

 that she does lay her eggs in the desert, leaving them by 

 day to the warmth of a burning sun ; but no sooner does 

 the evening set in, than swiftly she hastens across the 

 wild tracts of sand, over which she has, throughout the 

 day, been wandering, in search of a scanty supply of 



Ostrich. 



iii.) It is certainly true, 



