THE OSTRICH. 29 



Fierceness towards strangers. 



succeeding in this effort, they not only peck at 

 their fallen foe with their bills, but strike vio- 

 lently at him with their feet. The inner claw 

 being exceedingly strong, Dr. Shaw says he once 

 saw an unfortunate person who had his belly en- 

 tirely ripped open by one of these strokes. 

 While thus engaged, the ostriches make a fierce 

 hissing noise, and have their throats inflated and 

 mouths open. At other times they have a sort 

 of cackling voice, as in some of the gallinaceous 

 kinds : this they use when they have overcome 

 or routed an adversary. During the night they 

 utter a hideous cry, somewhat resembling the 

 distant roaring of a lion, or the hoarse tone of a 

 bear. 



Of all the species of animals the ostrich is the 

 most voracious; he indiscriminately takes up 

 and swallows gravel, stones, glass, leather, or in 

 short, almost every thing that comes in his way; 

 and with this voracity his powers of digestion 

 are equal, that is, with all such things as are di- 

 gestible ; but glass, stone, iron, and other sub- 

 stances which will not soften, pass whole, and 

 are voided in the same forms that the animal 

 swallowed them. Dr. Shaw tells us that he saw 

 one at Oran which swallowed, without any ap- 

 parent inconvenience, several leaden bullets, as 

 they were thrown upon the floor, scorching hot 

 from the mould. 



The vulgar idea, however, of the ostrich di- 

 gesting iron, is in a great measure confuted by 



