A VES— OSTRICH. • 613 



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 diminu- 

 tion 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 sub- 

 stances seldom remain long enough in the stomach of any animal to undergo 

 so tedious a dissolution. The ostrich lays very large eggs, some of them 

 being above five inches in diameter, and weighing above five pounds. 

 These eggs have a very hard shell, somewhat resembling those of the 

 crocodile, except that those of the latter are less and rounder. It is a curi- 

 ous fact, that these eggs often contain a number of small, exceedingly hard, 

 oval-shaped pebbles, about the size of a marrowfat pea, and of a yellow 

 color. They are sometimes set, and used as buttons. 



The season for laying depends upon the climate ; in the northern parts of 

 Africa it is about ihe beginning of July; in the south, it is about the latter 

 end of December. These birds are very prolific, and lay generally from 

 thirty to forty eggs in a season, and about twelve at one clutch. It has been 

 commonly reported that the female deposits them in the sand; and, covering 

 them up, leaves them to be hatched by the heat of the climate, and then 

 permits the young to shift for themselves. Very little of this however is 

 true; no bird has a stronger affection for her young than the ostrich, and 

 none watches her eggs with greater assiduity. It happens, indeed, in those 

 hot climates, that there is less necessity for the continual incubation of the 

 female ; and she more frequently leaves her eggs, which are in no fear of 

 being chilled by the weather : but though she sometimes forsakes them by day, 

 she always carefully broods over them by night ; nor is it more true that they 

 forsake their young after they are excluded from the shell. On the contrary, the 

 young ones are not even able to walk for several days after they are hatched. 

 During this time, the old ones are very assiduous in supplying them with 

 grass, and very careful to defend them from danger; nay, they encounter 

 every danger in their defence. 



The strength and size of the ostrich has suggested to men the experiment 

 of using them as animals of burthen. The tyrant Firmius, who reigned in 

 Egypt about the end of the third century, was frequently carried by large j 

 ostriches. Moore, an English traveller, relates that he had seen at Joar,** 

 in Africa, a man travelling on an ostrich. And Vallisnieri speaks of a 

 young man, who exhibited himself upon one of these birds at Venice. 

 In fine, M. Adanson saw, at the factory at Podor, two ostriches, which 

 were yet young, of which the stronger went at a pace which would have 

 distanced the fleetest English racehorse, with two negroes on its back. 

 Whether this bird could be broken and tamed so as to carry its rider with 

 the same safety and docility as a horse, is a different question ; and, let it be 

 remembered that, though the ostriches above-mentioned ran for a short time 



52 



