218 LECTURE VI. 



believe that the male and female Ostrich sit b^ 

 turns on the eggs, which are generally from 

 ten or twelve to twenty in number; (not fifty, 

 as mistakenly stated by Linnseus in the Systema 

 Naturae.) 



Other travellers of high reputation assure us, 

 that the male Ostrich, accompanied by three, 

 four, or five females, makes a kind of nest or 

 cavity, in which all the females deposit their re- 

 spective eggs, which they all likewise sit on, the 

 male occasionally relieving them by exercising 

 that office himself. 



The American or three-toed Ostrich was of 

 course unknown till the discovery of that Con- 

 tinent. It is a native of South America, and 

 perhaps the only specimen known in Europe is 

 that in the Leverian Museum ; but it has rather 

 the appearance of a half-grown bird than one 

 of its full growth. The colour of the American 

 Ostrich is brown, with whitish wing and tail 

 feathers, and the feet have three toes. 



In the same genus with the Ostrich is by 

 T/mnatus placed the Cassowary, or Emu, under 

 the title of Stntthio Casudrius; but of late it has 



