THE OSTRICH. 4/ 



/arger than the other stomach, and is furnished with strong musculai 

 fibres, as well circular as longitudinal. The second stomach, or giz- 

 zard, has outwardly the shape of the stomach of a man ; and, upon 

 opening, is always found filled with a variety of discordant substances; 

 'lay, 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 ana- 

 .ogy. 



Such is the structure of this animal, forming the shade that unites 

 birds and quadrupeds ; and from this structure its habits and manners 

 are entirely peculiar. It is a native only of the, fprriH rpgipps nf Af- 

 rica, and has long been celebratecTby those who have had occasion to 

 mention the animals of that region. Its flesh is proscribed in Scrip- 

 ture 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 

 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 os- 

 trich 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 caval- 

 ry, 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 os- 

 trich 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 pow- 

 ers of digestion less in such things as are digestible. Those substan- 

 ces 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 de- 

 voured. All metals, indeed, which are swallowed by any animal, lose 

 a part of their weight, and often the extremities 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 probable that a still 

 greater diminution of weight would happen in the stomach of an os- 

 trich. Considered in this light, therefore, this animal may be said to 

 digest iron ; but such substances seldom remain long enough in the 

 stomach of any animal to undergo so tedious a dissolution. Howevei 

 this be, the ostrich swallows almost every thing presented to it. Whe- 

 ther this be from the necessity which smaller birds are under of pick- 

 nig up gravel to keep the coats of their stomach asunder, or whctlict 



