GALLINACE.E. 341 



negro mount the smallest, and two others the largest. 

 This burden did not seem to me at all dispropor- 

 tioned to their strength. At first they went a mo- 

 derate gallop ; when they were heated a little they 

 expanded their wings, as if it were to catch the 

 wind, and they moved with such fleetness that they 

 seemed to be off the ground. I am satisfied that 

 they would have distanced the fleetest race-horses 

 that were ever bred in England. I have frequently 

 beheld this sight, which is capable of giving me 

 an idea of the prodigious strength of an Ostrich, 

 and of showing what use it might be of, had we 

 but the method of breaking it and managing it, as 

 we do a horse." * 



The Ostrich is coveted chiefly for the exquisitely 

 beautiful plumes, of loose texture and curled shape, 

 the feathers of the wings and tail greatly modified, 

 which form so great an ornament of head-dresses in 

 our own country. It is caught with great difficulty. 

 Its food is grain of various kinds, but it also eats 

 grass: the greediness with which it swallows hard 

 and useless substances, even pieces of metal, has been 

 often mentioned ; not, of course, that they are either 

 nutritious or digestible, but probably to aid in the 

 mastication of food by the gizzard, as gravel is swal- 

 lowed by poultry for the same purpose. 



The charge of neglecting its eggs, when laid, 

 brought against this bird, in perhaps the most ancient 

 of all poems,f and concerning which so much has 

 been written, seems to be perfectly true, as descrip- 



* Pinkerton's Collection, xvi. &9. + Job xxxix. 14 16. 



