THE OSTRICH. 139 



digesting metals, and converting them into food, although 

 it is undoubtedly true, that after having lain in that organ 

 for a length of time, they become corroded by its juices. 

 M. Cuvier found in the stomach of an individual that died 

 in the Paris Menagerie, nearly a pound weight of stones, 

 bits of iron and copper, and pieces of money, worn down 

 by constant attrition against each other, as well as by the 

 action of the stomach itself. The human stomach, we may 

 add, is equally capable of a similar exertion, although not 

 so frequently called upon to put it to the test. Many of our 

 readers will no doubt recollect the case of an American 

 sailor, who died in one of the London hospitals in 1809, 

 and who had swallowed, in the ten previous years, no 

 fewer than thirty-five clasp-knives. Fragments of these, 

 to the number of between thirty and forty, thirteen or 

 fourteen of them being evidently blades, were found in his 

 stomach after death. " Some of these,' ' says Dr. Marcet, 

 in his account of the case, "were remarkably corroded and 

 reduced in size, while others were comparatively in a tole- 

 rable state of preservation." More than one instance of a 

 similar description has since been put on record. 



Although the Ostriches live together in large herds, the 

 received opinion among naturalists is, that the males attach 

 themselves to a single female. There is some difficulty in 

 determining the number of eggs laid by the latter; some 

 travellers estimating it as high as eighty, while others re- 

 duce it to ten. Of this latter opinion was Le Vaillant, 

 whose authority is decidedly entitled to the highest respect 

 on every subject connected with the habits of birds, which 

 he studied in a state of nature with the scrutinizing eye 

 of a philosopher, and the patient zeal of a scientific ob- 

 server. He relates, however, a circumstance which once 

 fell under his own observation, and which tends in some 

 measure to reconcile these discordant statements, while at 

 the same time it renders it questionable whether the Ostrich 

 is not, occasionally at least, polygamous. Having disturbed 



