32 HISTORY OF 



vision ; they eat almost every thing ; and these barren tracts are 

 thus doubly grateful, as they afford both food and security. The 

 ostrich is, of all other animals, the most voracious. It will de- 

 vour leather, glass, hair, iron, stones, or any thing that is given. 

 Nor are its powers of digestion less in such things as are diges- 

 tible. Those substances which the coats of the stomach cannot 

 soften, pass whole ; so that glass, stones, or iron, are excluded 

 in the form in which they were devoured. All metals, indeed, 

 which are swallowed by any animal, lose a part of their weight, 

 and often the extremities of their figure, from the action of the 

 juices of the stomach upon their surface. A quarter pistole, 

 which was swallowed by a duck, lost seven grains of its weight 

 in the gizzard before it was voided ; and it is probable that a still 

 greater diminution of weight would happen in the stomach of an 

 ostrich. Considered in this light, therefore, this animal may be 

 said to digest iron ; but such substances seldom remjun long 

 enough in the stomach of any animal to undergo so tedious a dis- 

 solution. However this be, the ostrich swallows almost every 

 thing presented to it. Whether this be from the necessity which 

 smaller birds are under of picking up gravel to keep the coats of 

 their stomach asunder, or whether it be from a want of distin- 

 guishing by the taste what substances are fit and what incapable 

 of digestion ; certain it is, that in the ostrich dissected by Ranby 

 there appeared such a quantity of heterogeneous substances, that 

 it was wonderful how any animal could digest such an overcharge 

 of nourishment. Valisnieri also found tiie first stomach filled 

 with a quantity of incongruous substances ; grass, nuts, cords, 

 stones, glass, brass, copper, iron, tin, lead, and wood ; a piece of 

 stone was found among the rest that weighed more than a pound. 

 He saw one of these animals that was killed by devouring a quan- 

 tity of quick-lime. It would seem that the ostrich is obliged to 

 fill up the great capacity of its stomach in order to be at ease ; 

 but that nutritious substances not occurring, it pours in whatever 

 offers to supply the void. 



In their native deserts, however, it is probable they live chiefly 

 upon vegetables, where they lead an inoffensive and social life •, 

 the male, as Thevenot assures us, assorting with the female 

 with connubial fidelity. They are said to be very much inclined 

 to venery ; and the make of the parts in both sexes seems to con- 

 firm the report. It is probable also they copulate, like other 



