32 PLEASURES OF ORNITHOLOGY. 



Whose attitudes much elegance display. 

 There too, indigenous, that Textor (') bird, 

 Who oft, in his captivity, hath wrought, 

 With chosen filaments, consummate skill, 

 Rich fabrics of unrivalled bombycine. 



In fine, go search on Afric's thirsty sands, 

 That Struthionid{^) tall, of all earth's birds 

 The biggest, him whose fair and snowy plumes 

 Bedeck our brightest beauties ; thence seek YE, . 

 Of helmet pride, the Emeu of the East^ (3) 

 The Rhea of the West ;{^) or him{^) who roves 

 The wild Australian plain, and, fleet of foot. 

 Flies fast before the hunters ; all evince. 

 As o'er the earth they skim, yet scarcely touch. 

 Speed without flight — our admiration win. 



(») Emheriza texlrix, or Weaver-bunting. The habits of 

 this bird are very little known ; more iuformation concerning 

 them is every way desirable ; its nest is, in all probability, a very 

 curious one. — (*) Struthionid, a bird of the Ostrich tribe. 

 The particular one here alluded to, the Struthio camelus, Black 

 or African Ostrich. — (3) Struthio casuarius, or Cassowary. 

 — (4) Struthio rhea, or American Ostrich. — (^) Struthio 

 Nov(E Hollandice^ or New Holland Cassowary. The Dodo, 

 Didus (Linn.), is arranged also under Struthio, which Dr. 

 Latham has made an order consisting of four genera, of which 

 the Dodo is one. But although there is no doubt that such 

 birds as Dodos have existed, (see Ornithol gia, page 383,) yet, 

 by the latest researi lies, (see Zoological Journal,) they are not 

 now to be found at the Mauritius, where they formerly in- 

 habited; nor have they been heard of elsewhere. 



