20 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



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 formed 

 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 somewhat 

 resembles the crop in other birds; but it is 

 considerably larger than the other stomach, 

 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 dis- 

 cordant substances ; hay, grass, barley, beans, 

 bones, and stones, some of which exceed 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 divided into 

 lobes. The heart and lungs are separated 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 de- 

 scribe it as well known in their times. Like 

 the race of the elephant, it is transmitted 

 down without mixture ; and has never 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 country of the elephant, 

 the rhinoceros, and camel, 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 vegetables 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 ha- 

 bitation 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 supplying 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 sto- 

 mach 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 proba- 

 ble 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 sto- 

 mach 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 

 to keep the coats of their stomach asunder, or 

 whether it be from a want of distinguishing 

 by the taste what substances are fit and what 

 incapable of digestion ; certain it is, that in 

 the ostrich dissected by Ranby there appeared 

 such a quantity of heterogeneous substances, 

 that it was wonderful how any animal could 

 digest such an overcharge of nourishment. 

 Valisnieri also found the first stomach filled 

 with a quantity of incongruous substances ; 

 grass, nuts, cords, stones, glass, brass, copper, 

 iron, tin, lead, and wood ; a p&ce of stone 

 was found among the rest that weighed more 

 than a pound. He saw one of these animals 

 that was killed by devouring a quantity of 

 quick-lime. It would seem that the ostrich is 

 obliged to fill up the great capacity of its sto- 

 mach in order to be at ease ; but that nutri- 

 tious substances not occurring, it pours in 

 whatever offers to supply the void. 



In their native deserts, however, it is pro- 

 bable they live chiefly upon vegetables, where 

 they lead an inoffensive and social life ; the 

 male, as Thevenot assures us, assorting with 

 the female with connubial fidelity. They 

 are said to be very much inclined to venery ; 



