i68 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



TASTE OR SCENT IN THE OSTRICH 



That the Ostrich possesses the sense of taste or of smell, or 

 perhaps both, to a considerable degree, seems to be indicated by the 

 behaviour of a female Ostrich in the Zoological Park. This bird 

 had a poor appetite and was failing in condition, and as it would 

 not eat any of the food ordinarily given to it, a large number of 

 other food substances were offered it in the effort to induce it to 

 feed again. Among other things the writer offered it a considerable 

 variety of fancy biscuits ; the first were made up of two ice-wafers 

 with some sugary compound between, and the Ostrich snapped up 

 greedily three packets consisting of six biscuits each. The fourth 

 packet to be brought from the writer's pocket happened to contain 

 another kind of biscuit flavoured with cocoanut. These were offered, 

 and the Ostrich also ate them with equal eagerness. When, however, 

 the fifth packet, which again contained the same kind of ice-wafer 

 biscuits as the first three, was offered, the Ostrich no sooner felt 

 the biscuit in its beak, than it dropped it. Again and again these 

 biscuits were offered to the bird, but she would not swallow them, 

 merely touching them with the tip of her beak and dropping them. 

 Search was made amongst the different packets of biscuits for some 

 more of the second kind ; another of them was offered and taken. 

 The next packet to be offered after that contained "ginger snaps," 

 and these found equal favour with the bird, but after having eaten one 

 packet of the ginger snaps, it refused not only the ice-wafer biscuit, 

 but also the cocoanut one, and the writer found that the only biscuit 

 afterwards he could get it to take was the ginger snap. The fact 

 that the bird preferred the last kind of biscuit it had taken, may have 

 been due to nothing more than an abnormal and erratic appetite ; 

 the interesting point was the quickness with which the bird per- 

 ceived, by some other sense than sight, the distinction between the 

 different kinds of biscuit. One would imagine that a bird which 

 was seizing and swallowing rapidly whole biscuits, would have gone 

 on swallowing each biscuit for so long as it was prepared to swallow 

 any, but, on the contrary, the biscuit it did not want was merely 

 touched with the mandibles and dropped at once, while the favourite 

 one was seized and swallowed at a gulp. 



The same thing occurred in regard to other foods offered it, but 

 in no case was the quickness of selection shown so markedly as in 

 regard to the biscuits. Thus, at one time, the bird showed a liking 

 for small potatoes and swallowed them as they were offered, but 

 small apples offered with potatoes were rejected after being touched 

 with the mandibles as quickly as were the despised biscuits. 



T. H. G. 



