48 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



excited a high degree of interest in the minds even of 

 the most superficial observers. But far more strongly 

 does this feeling prevail in that of the reflecting natu- 

 ralist, who does not regard this gigantic bird as an 

 isolated portion of the great system of nature, but 

 perceives in it one of those remarkable links in the 

 complicated chain of the creation, too often invisible 

 to human scrutiny, but occasionally too obvious to be 

 overlooked, which connect together the various classes 

 of animated beings. With the outward form and the 

 most essential parts of the internal structure of Birds, 

 it combines in many of its organs so close a resem- 

 blance to the Ruminating Quadrupeds as to have 

 received, from the earliest antiquity, an epithet indi- 

 cative of that affinity which later investigations have 

 only tended more satisfactorily to establish. The name 

 of Camel-Bird, by which it was known, not only to 

 the Greeks and Romans, but also to the nations of the 

 East ; the broad assertion of Aristotle that the Ostrich 

 was partly Bird and partly Quadruped ; and that of 

 Pliny, that it might almost be said to belong to the 

 class of Beasts ; are but so many proofs of the popular 

 recognition of a well authenticated zoological truth. 



The Ostrich in fact is altogether destitute of the 

 power of flight, its wings being reduced to so low a 

 degree of developement as to be quite incapable of 

 sustaining its enormous bulk in the air. Its breast- 

 bone is consequently flattened and uniform on its outer 

 surface, like that of a Quadruped, offering no trace of 

 the elevated central ridge so generally characteristic of 

 Birds, and so conspicuously prominent in those which 

 possess the faculty of supporting themselves long upon 

 the wing. Its legs on the contrary are excessively 

 powerful ; and are put in action by muscles of extra- 

 ordinary magnitude. This muscular power, together 

 with the great length of its limbs, enables it to run with 



