380 FOREIGN BIRDS. 



That man, with superior intelligence fraught, 

 On such occupation shall not waste a thought : 

 When death, if the animal for him must die, 

 Shall be sudden and safe, and escape in a sigh ?* 



like a horse in its native climate, it is said to be very unma* 

 nagcable and untractable. 



" O'er the wild waste the stupid ostrich strays, 

 In devious search to pick her scanty meal, 

 Whose fierce digestion gnaws the teniper'd steel." 

 MiCKLE's Lusiad, Book v. 



Such statements, often made, that this bird can digest steel 

 or iron, are founded in mistake ; it is true the bird will swallow 

 pieces of iron, but there is no evidence whatever that they are 

 digested. 



The Rhea, Eifltu, Rhea, American-Emeu, or American- 

 OsTKiCH, is grey above, beneath white ; it has three toes oir 

 each foot, ^nd a round callus behind. It is by far the largest 

 bird found in the American continent, it being about six feet 

 high; the neck is long, head small, beak flat; but, in other 

 respects, resembles the Cassowary. Its voracity and speed are 

 similar to the Ostrich. Found in almost every part of South 

 America. 



The uest is in a large hole in the ground, often with a little 



• The hunting of Birds with dogs, except as setter?, is, in 

 this country, not now, I believe, practised ; it is devoutly to be 

 hoped that the hunting of oilier animals will ultimately give way 

 to a superior intelligence and the benevolent affections. The 

 author, when a school-boy, remembers being once on a hunting 

 excursion, and never but once ; that once was, for him, sufficient : 

 the hare was eaten up alive by the dogs / he will never forget the 

 horror with v\hich he beheld one of the gentlemen hunters exhibit 

 a leg, the only part left, with the fibres ^11 quivering. See the 

 House-Spakrow's Speech. 



