172 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAI> 



If we look at the foot of an ordinary conventional bird, 

 such as a hen or a pigeon, we shall see that there are three 

 toes spread out in front and a hind toe projecting (or should 

 one say retrojecting ? ) backwards. In none of the ostrich 

 tribe is this hinder toe, which we may see in the foot of 

 the hen or the pigeon, well developed. In the American 

 ostrich or rhea, and the cassowaries and emus, it is absent, 

 and only in the New Zealand kiwi or apteryx is there a small 

 apology for a hinder toe. All these cousins of the ostrich 

 have, however, the three front toes. But here again the 

 African ostrich affects extreme peculiarity, for he has 

 only two toes on each foot, one of which, the inner, is 

 twice as long and as strong as the other. This is one of 

 the points of resemblance to the dromedary which gained 

 for the ostrich the name of the camel-bird. Both camel- 

 bird and camel-beast have, too, a hard, pad-like covering 

 to the breast-bone; and their modes of getting up and 

 lying down are somewhat similar. Studied at ease at 

 the Zoo, they may not appear very much alike, but in 

 their native haunts the resemblance has often been 

 noticed. " When we saw them far ahead," says Mr. 

 Palgrave, " running in a long line one after the other, 

 we almost took them for a string of scared camels." 

 And the Rev. A. C. Smith writes : " When seen at a 

 distance moving over the desert, the camels struck me 

 as resembling in a most remarkable degree their desert 

 companion the ostrich." 



The manner of feeding of the ostrich is more than un- 

 conventional ; it is vulgar. His powers of digestion are 

 proverbial. He seizes everything he conies across, and 

 simply bolts it, taking it in the tip of his beak and 

 throwing it down his throat with a jerk of his head. Few 

 vegetable substances come amiss to him, leaves, fruit, 

 berries, or seeds; and among animal foods he will snap 



