ORDER GRALL/E. 427 



with the grous. At other times this bird hears very well : it 

 also possesses the visual power in great perfection. 



There is, properly speaking, but one species of the ostrich, 

 (struthio-camelus) ; for, as our author observes, the nandu 

 might well stand as a separate genus. It appertains exclu- 

 sively to the ancient Continent. The sandy deserts of Africa 

 are the places in which it has established its habitual sojourn. 

 It is found from Egypt and Barbary, as far as the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and in the neighbouring islands, and those parts 

 of Asia which border on the African Continent. It is less 

 common in the environs of Goa, than in Arabia ; and it exists 

 not beyond the Ganges. 



The ostrich is naturally herbivorous ; but though vegetable 

 matter constitutes the basis of its food, and though it is often 

 seen pasturing in the south of Africa, it is yet so voracious, 

 and its senses of taste and smell are so obtuse, that it devours 

 animal and mineral substances indiscriminately, until its enor- 

 mous stomach is completely full. It swallows without any 

 choice, and merely, as it were, to serve for ballast, wood, 

 stones, glass, iron, copper, gold, lime, or, in fact, any other 

 substance, equally hard, indigestible, and deleterious. The 

 powers of digestion in this bird are certainly very great ; 

 but their operation is confined to matters of an alimentary 

 character. But copper, far from being converted into nutri- 

 ment, acts upon its stomach like poison, and nails very fre- 

 quently pierce its coats and membranes. However, though 

 the ostrich does not, as is vulgarly supposed, digest iron, yet 

 pieces of this metal are found in its stomach, not only worn 

 down, as they would be, by trituration with other hard bodies, 

 but evidently eaten into by some gastric fluid, and exhibiting 

 cracks and flaws which such a fluid could alone produce 

 M. Cuvier was convinced of this fact by the examination of 

 an individual that died in the French menagerie, in the body 

 of which was found nearly a pound weight of stones, pieces 



