120 Ostriches. 



This, like all the writer's works, is, for the time 

 in which it was written, eminently free from 

 romance, though no doubt there was some truth 

 in the words of a later writer who said "the 

 protestations which Belonius and some others do 

 make, to say nothing but what they have seen, and 

 the Assurances which they do give of having 

 discovered a great many of the falsities which 

 have been writt before them, have scarce any 

 other effect, than to render the sinceritie of 

 all Travellers very suspect, because that these 

 Censurers of the good Credit and exactness of 

 others, do not give sufficient Cautions of their 

 own." Belon repeated the well-known fables, 

 though not entirely on his own authority, for he 

 wrote of the ostrich : " Quand on le chasse, il a 

 1'industrie de jecter des pierres avecques les pieds 

 en fuyant, contre ceux qui le pourchassent. Et si 

 d'avanture TAutruche trouve un buisson, Ion dit 

 qu'il est si sot oyseau, que se cachant seulement la 

 teste, pense que tout le reste du corps est en 

 sauvete." And in his " Portraits d'Oyseaux, &c." 

 we find the following quatrain under the figure of 

 this bird : 



L'Austruche pent la pierre digerer : 

 Et a quasi du Chameau la figure. 

 Bien qu'il soit lourd, legiere est son allure : 

 Mais a voler ne s'ause aventurer. 



From Belongs account it would appear that 

 ostrich-farming is by no means the modern 

 invention that many would have us believe ; for, 



