138 THE OSTRICH. 



imagined, to catch the wind in order to assist them in their 

 flight, for they do it indifferently, whether running with 

 or against the wind, but, in all probability, to counterbal- 

 ance their great height, by the extension of these lateral 

 appendages. 



Their natural food consists entirely of vegetable sub- 

 stances, and more especially of seeds and the various kinds 

 of grain, in pursuit of which they frequently commit the 

 greatest devastation among the crops in cultivated countries. 

 But so obtuse is the sense of taste in this bird, that it 

 swallows with the utmost indifference, sometimes even 

 with greediness, whatever comes in its way, whether of 

 animal or mineral origin, partly for the purpose, as it 

 should seem, of distending its stomach, and partly also to 

 assist, like the gravel in the crops of our common poultry, 

 in the triturition of its food. Its fondness for the metals, 

 in particular, was early remarked, and obtained for it the 

 epithet of the " iron-eating Ostrich." Popular credulity 

 even went so far as to assign to it the power of digesting 

 these substances ; and many are the allusions in our older 

 writers to this fancied property. As an amusing illustra- 

 tion of the prevalence of this belief, we may quote the fol- 

 lowing characteristic lines from " The Boke of Philip 

 Sparow," written by Master John Skelton, a laurelled poet 

 of the reign of King Henry the Eighth. 



The Estridge that will eate 

 An horshowe so great 

 In the stead of meat 

 Such fervent heat 

 His stomake doth freat. 



We know not if the Ostriches of these days are given to 

 the eating of horseshoes ; but unquestionably they have a 

 particular fancy for keys, nails, and other such easily dis- 

 posed of articles. It would, however, be perfectly ridicu- 

 lous to imagine that the stomach of this bird is capable of 



