134 THE OSTRICH. 



enormous bulk in the air. Its breast-bone is consequently 

 flattened and uniform on its outer surface, like that of a 

 Quadruped, offering no trace of the elevated central ridge 

 so generally characteristic of birds, and so conspicuously 

 prominent in those which possess the faculty of supporting 

 themselves long upon the wing. Its legs, on the contrary, 

 are excessively powerful ; and are put in action by muscles 

 of extraordinary magnitude. This muscular power, toge- 

 ther with the great length of its limbs, enables it to run with 

 incredible swiftness, and to distance, with little exertion, 

 the fleetest Arabian horses. The total want of feathers on 

 every part of these members, and their division into no 

 more than two toes, connected at the base by a membrane, 

 a structure not unaptly compared to the elongated and 

 divided hoof of the Camel, have always been considered 

 striking points of resemblance between these animals ; but 

 there is another singularity in their external conformation 

 which affords a still more remarkable coincidence. They 

 are both furnished with callous protuberances on the chest, 

 and on the posterior part of the abdomen, on which they 

 support themselves when at rest ; and they both lie down 

 in the same manner, by first bending the knees, and then 

 applying the anterior callosity, and lastly, the posterior, to 

 the ground. Add to this that, equally patient of thirst, and 

 endowed with stomachs somewhat similar in structure, 

 they are both formed for inhabiting, to a certain extent, the 

 same arid deserts, and it will readily be granted, that the 

 affinity between these animals is not so fanciful as might, 

 at first sight, be imagined. 



The family of Birds, of which the Ostrich forms the 

 leading type, is remarkable for the wide dispersion of its 

 several members ; each of them vindicating, as it were, to 

 itself, a distinct portion of the surface of the earth. *The 

 Ostrich, which is spread over nearly the whole of Africa, 

 is scarcely known beyono\ the limits of the Arabian deserts, 

 while the Cassowary occupies its place amid the luxuriant 



