THE OSTRICH. 207 



refuses him the sense of hearing. It has been said 

 that he feeds principally on stones, wood, and iron. 

 Aldrovande represents him enjoying a horse-shoe ; it 

 has even been pretended that he would swallow red- 

 hot coals. Marmol, in his "Description de 1'Afrique," 

 says that he digests red-hot iron. "I would not 

 deny," writes Buffon, " that they miglit sometimes 

 even swallow red-hot iron, provided it was in very 

 small quantities, but I do not think that even that 

 could be done with impunity." They have been called 

 the worst of mothers: Struthio dura cst in pullos 

 suos quasi non slut sui. 



They have been denied all intelligence, even to the 

 extent of being too stupid to seek their safety by 

 flight; " and," says Belon, "if by chance it finds a 

 bush, they say that it is such a foolish bird, that 

 in hiding its head therein it imagines its whole 

 body to be safe." Belon had taken that from Pliny; 

 Kolbe repeats it in his "Description du Cap de Bonne 

 Esperance." A stone extracted from its stomach pro- 

 cures good digestion to him who hangs it round 

 his neck. But enough of fiction ; let us now go to 

 facts. 



III. 



THE ostrich has the sense of sight very fully deve- 

 loped. It can see, it is said, six miles. It hears 



