Page 356. 
Page 357. 
96 NOTES ON AN OSTRICH LATELY LIVING 
14, NOTES ON AN OSTRICH LATELY LIVING IN 
THE SOCIETY’S COLLECTION. (Written in con- 
junction with FRANK Darwin, B.A.)* 
A mate Ostrich (Struthio camelus) has been in the Society’s Gar- 
dens since April, 1869, and was quite healthy until last October, when 
its appetite began to fail, and it did not take kindly to its food from 
that time until its death on the 6th ult. In September last the 
keeper noticed on several occasions that after running about as it was 
accustomed to do in play, it turned giddy and apparently tripped, but 
never quite fell. For the last four months it had lost flesh gradually. 
Whenever any fresh food was offered it, it would take a little and then 
refuse any more, and would do thus, however many new things were 
~ presented to it. 
It had suffered from diarrhoea more or less ever since October, the 
excrement having a yellowish-green colour. 
Latterly it had been nearly continually in the sitting position, and 
would stand very unwillingly. It also frequently rubbed its head and 
eyes with its foot, as if something was irritating it there. 
In the post-mortem examination very little structural disease was 
found; and the cause of death is more probably connected with the 
contents of the stomach rather than with any other agency. 
There was more than half a gallon of stones in the stomach: most 
of them were about the size of cob-nuts or peas; and they fully dilated 
the organ and pulled it down abnormally. Mixed up with these stones 
were numerous copper coins and pieces of coins in a much worn state. 
There were two pennies and fifteen halfpence; and very few showed 
the least trace of the stamp they had previously borne, and those only 
by an oblique light, the difference in density of the metal, produced 
by the stamping, having caused them to wear unevenly. Most of them 
were slightly curved, being meniscoid in form. They were all highly 
polished, and not in the least corroded. Many were in pairs, with a 
layer of softish green matter, about ;'5 of an inch thick, interposed. 
The chips of coins were very numerous, and of all sizes below that of 
the coins themselves. No silver was found, and nothing else except 
a glove-button and a nut, the latter being at the bottom of the sso- 
phagus. 
* “ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1872, pp. 356-63. Read, March 5, 
1872. 
