THE OSTRICH. 



49 



incredible swiftness, and to distance with little exertion 

 the fleetest Arabian horses. The total want of feathers 

 on every part of these members, and their division into 

 no more than two toes connected at the base by a 

 membrane, a structure not unaptly compared to the 

 elongated and divided hoof of the Camel, have always 

 been considered striking points of resemblance between 

 these animals : but there is another singularity in their 

 external conformation which affords a still more remark- 

 able coincidence. They are both furnished with callous 

 protuberances on the chest and on the posterior part 

 of the abdomen, on which they support themselves 

 when at rest ; and they both lie down in the same 

 manner, by first bending the knees, then applying the 

 anterior callosity, and lastly the posterior, to the 

 ground. Add to this that, equally patient of thirst, 

 and endowed with stomachs somewhat similar in struc- 

 ture, they are both formed for inhabiting, to a certain 

 extent, the same arid deserts, and it will readily be 

 granted that the affinity between these animals is not 

 so fanciful as might at first sight be imagined. 



The family of Birds of which the Ostrich forms the 

 leading type, is remarkable for the wide dispersion of 

 its several members ; each of them vindicating as it 

 were to itself a distinct portion of the surface of the 

 earth. The Ostrich, which is spread over nearly the 

 whole of Africa, is scarcely known beyond the limits 

 of the Arabian deserts ; while the Cassowary occupies 

 its place amid the luxuriant vegetation of the Indian 

 Archipelago. The Emeu is confined to the great Austra- 

 lian Continent, and the Rhea to the southern extremity 

 of the Western Hemisphere. And finally, returning 

 homewards, we find the Bustard, the largest bird of 

 this quarter of the globe, receding it is true in some 

 particulars from the typical form, but still fairly to be 



BIRDS. E 



