426 CLASS AVES. 



the ruminant order. The same analogy is remakable in the 

 organs of locomotion, and in those of generation. 



In examining the organs of sense in the ostrich, we may 

 remark, that the nostrils, situated in the upper mandible, not 

 far from the base, have, at each of the two apertures, a carti- 

 laginous protuberance, covered with a very fine membrane. 

 These apertures communicate with the palate by two conduits 

 which conduct into a considerable cleft. It must not be con- 

 cluded, however, from the somewhat complicated structure of 

 the organ of smell, that the ostrich possesses this sense in any 

 high degree of perfection. On the contrary, it is very imper- 

 fect in this bird; This sense serves to the majority of animals, 

 that possess it to any extent, as the means of discerning, and 

 properly distinguishing the food which is suitable and natural 

 to them ; but it is so useless to the ostrich, that it will swal- 

 low iron, flints, glass, and even copper, in spite of its dis- 

 agreeable smell ; and, according to the report of Vallisneri, 

 one of these birds died in consequence of having devoured an 

 immense quantity of quick-lime. 



This fact proves that the sense of taste in the ostrich is 

 not less obtuse and feeble than that of smell. The gallinae, 

 and other granivora, by no means remarkable for delicacy in 

 the organs of taste, and which swallow plenty of small stones 

 when they are mixed with grains, would suffer themselves to 

 die of hunger, sooner than touch such a corrosive sub- 

 stance as quick-lime. We find, accordingly, no vestiges of 

 nervous papillae on the tongue of the ostrich. 



Although the ears of this bird are conformed in a manner 

 the most calculated to facilitate hearing, their apertures being 

 very large, and not impeded with feathers, yet Leo Africanus 

 affirms, that the ostrich is deprived of the auricular faculty. 

 If it be true, however, that the ostrich be ever deaf, it can 

 only be so during the season of reproduction, which is the case 



