THE OSTRICH. 



463 



The thighs are very fleshy and large, being 

 covered with a white skin, inclining to red- 

 ness, and wrinkled in the manner of a net, 

 whose meshes will admit the end of a finger. 

 Some have very small feathers here and there 

 on the thighs ; and others again have neither 

 feathers nor wrinkles. What are called the 

 legs of birds, in this are covered before with 

 large scales. 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 largest, which is on 

 the inside, is 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 internal parts of this animal are form- 

 ed with no less surprising peculiarity. At 

 the top of the breast, under the skin, the fat 

 is two inches thick; and on the fore part of 

 the belly it is as hard as suet, and about two 

 inches and a half thick in some places. It 

 has two distinct stomachs. The first, which 

 is lowermost, in its natural situation some- 

 what resembles the crop in other birds ; but 

 it is considerably larger than the other sto- 

 mach, and is furnished with strong muscular 

 fibres, as well circular as longitudinal. The 

 second stomach, or gizzard, has outwardly 

 the shape of the stomach of a man ; and, upon 

 opening, is always found filled with a variety 

 of discordant substances; hay, grass, barley, 

 beans, bones, and stones, some of which ex- 

 ceed in size a pullet's egg. The kidneys are 

 eight inches long and two broad, and differ 

 from those of other birds in not being divid- 

 ed into lobes. The heart and lungs are se- 

 parated by a midriff, as in quadrupeds, and 

 the parts of generation also bear a very strong 

 resemblance and analogy. 



Such is the structure of this animal, form- 

 ing the shade that unites birds and quadru- 

 peds; and from this structure its habits and 

 manners are entirely peculiar. It is a native 

 only of the torrid regions of Africa, and has 

 long been celebrated by those who have had 

 occasion to mention the animals of that region. 

 Its flesh is proscribed in scripture as unfit to 

 be eaten ; and most of the ancient writers 

 describe it as well known in their times. 

 Like the race of the elephant, it is transmit- 



never 



ted down without mixture; and has 

 been known to breed out of that country 

 which first produced it. It seems formed to 

 live among the sandy and burning deserts of 

 the torrid zone; and, as in some measure it 

 owes its birth to their genial influence, so it 

 seldom migrates into tracts more mild or 

 more fertile. As that is the peculiar coun- 

 try of the elephant, the rhinoceros, and ca- 

 mel, so it may readily be supposed capable 

 of affording a retreat to the ostrich. They 

 inhabit, from preference, the most solitary 

 and horrid deserts, where there are few ve- 

 getables to clothe the surface of the earth, 

 and where the rain never comes to refresh it. 

 The Arabians assert that the ostrich never 

 drinks; and the place of its habitation seems 

 to confirm the assertion. In these formidable 

 regions, ostriches are seen in large flocks, 

 which to the distant spectator appear like a 

 regiment of cavalry, and have often alarmed 

 a whole caravan. There is no desert, how 

 barren soever, but what is capable of supply- 

 ing these animals with provision ; they eat 

 almost every thing; and these barren tracts 

 are thus doubly grateful, as they afford both 

 food and security. The ostrich is of all other 

 animals the most voracious. It will devour 

 leather, glass, hair, iron, stones, or any thing 

 that is given. Nor are its powers of digestion 

 less in such things as are digestible. Those 

 substances which the coats of the stomach 

 cannot soften, pass whole ; so that glass, 

 stones, or iron, are excluded in the form in 

 which they were devoured. All metals, in- 

 deed, which are swallowed by any animal, 

 lose a part of their weight, and often the ex- 

 tremities of their figure, from the action of 

 the juices of the stomach upon their surface. 

 A quarter pistole, which was swallowed by 

 a duck, lost seven grains of its weight in the 

 gizzard before it was voided ; and it is pro- 

 bable that a still greater diminution of weight 

 would happen in the stomach of an ostrich. 

 Considered in this light, therefore, this ani- 

 mal may be said to digest iron; but such sub- 

 stances seldom remain long enough in the 

 stomach of any animal to undergo so tedious 

 a dissolution. However this be, the ostrich 

 swallows almost every thing presented to it. 

 Whether this be from the necessity which 

 smaller birds are under of picking up gravel 



