CURIOUS CREATURES. 



197 



her young ones. Made tame she will cleane a house of 

 Flyes, and catch Mice. She foreshews Rain when she 

 cries ; which also Field Scorpions do, called Mares, 

 Cuckows ; who by flying overthwart, and crying loudly, 

 foreshew Rain at hand ; also the larger Scorpions, with 

 huge long snouts, fore signifie Rain ; so do Wood- 

 peckers. There is a Bird also called Rayn, as big as 

 a Partridge that hath Feathers of divers colours, of a 

 yellow, white, and black colour : This is supposed to 

 live upon nothing but Ayr, though she be fat, nothing 

 is found in her belly. The Fowlers hunt her with long 

 poles, which they cast high in the Ayr to fright her, so 

 that they may catch the Bird flying down." 



THE OSTRICH. 



Modern observation, and especially Ostrich farming, 

 has thoroughly exploded the 

 old errors respecting this 

 bird. We believe in its 

 powers of swallowing any- 

 thing not too large, but not 

 in its digesting everything, 

 and certainly not, as Muen- 

 ster would fain have us 

 believe, that an Ostrich's 

 dinner consists of a church- 

 door key, and a horse-shoe. 

 As matters of fact, we know 

 that, when pursued, they 

 do not bury their heads in 

 the sand, or a bush ; and 

 instead of covering their 

 eggs with sand, and leaving the sun to hatch them, 



