148 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



what resemble those of a duck ; and the neck may be compared to 

 that of a swan, but that it is much longer. The legs and thighs re- 

 semble those of a hen, but are very fleshy and large. The end of 

 the foot is cloven, and has two very large toes, which, like the leg, 

 are covered with scales. These toes are of unequal sizes ; the lar- 

 gest, which is on the inside, being seven inches long including the 

 claw, which is near three-fourths of an inch in length, and almost 

 as broad ; the other toe is but four inches long, and is without a 

 claw. The height of the ostrich is usually seven feet, from the head 

 to the ground ; but from the back it is only four : 'so that the head 

 and the neck are above three feet long. From the head to the end 

 of the tail, when the neck is stretched in a right line, it is seven feet 

 long. One of the wings, with the feathers stretched out, is three 

 feet in length. The plumage is generally white and black, though 

 some of thejii are said to be grey. There are no feathers on the sides 

 of the thighs, nor under the wings. The lower half of the neck is 

 covered with smaller feathers than those on the belly and back, and 

 the head and upper part of the neck are covered with hair. At the 

 end of each wing, there is a kind of spur, resembling the quill of a 

 porcupine, about an inch long, and about a foot lower down the 

 wing is another of the same description, but something smaller. 



The ostrich has not, like most other birds, feathers of various 

 kinds ; they are all bearded with detached hairs or filaments, with- 

 out consistence and reciprocal adherence. The consequence is, that 

 they cannot oppose to the air a suitable resistance, and therefore 

 are of no utility in flying, or in directing the flight. Besides the 

 peculiar structure of her wings, the ostrich is rendered incapabls 

 of flight by her enormous size, weighing seventy-five or eighty 

 pounds ; a weight which would require an immense power of wing 

 tp elevate into the air. 



The ostrich is a native only of the torrid regions of Africa and 

 Arabia, and has furnished the sacred writers with some of their 

 most beautiful imagery. The following descriptions and illustra- 

 tions are chiefly selected from Professor Paxton and Dr. Harris. 



The ostrich was aptly called by the ancients a lover of the des- 

 erts. Shy and timorous in no common degree, she retires from the 

 cultivated field, where she is disturbed by the Arabian shepherds 

 and husbandmen, into the deepest recesses of the Sahara. In 

 those dreary wastes, she is reduced to subsist on a few tufts of 

 coarse grass, which here and there languish on their surface, or a 

 few other solitary plants equally destitute of nourishment, and in 

 the Psalmist's phrase, even * withered before they are grown up.' 

 To this dry and parched food may perhaps he added, the great va- 

 riety of land-snails which occasionally cover the leaves and stalks 

 of these herbs, and which may afford her some refreshment. Nor 

 is it improbable, that she sometimes regales herself on lizards and 

 serpents, together with insects and reptiles of various kinds. Still, 

 Jiowever, considering the voracity and size of this camel-bird, (as 

 Jt is called in the East,) it is won,deiful how the little one? shpuld 



