428 CLASS AVES. 



of iron or copper, and pieces of money, half worn down. 

 This bird prefered barley to every other kind of aliment, and 

 would eat four pounds of it daily, with a pound of bread, 

 and about ten heads of lettuce. 



The general opinion in Arabia is that the ostrich does not 

 drink, and according to Eldemiri, before quoted, it even 

 avoids those places where water is to be found. Notwith- 

 standing this, an ostrich in the menagerie above-mentioned, 

 used, in summer, to drink four pints of water daily ; and in 

 winter, when it was necessary to keep it shut up, it would 

 drink more than six. But those facts, observed in a state of 

 captivity, should not completely invalidate the assertion of 

 the Arabs. The ostrich, we know, to be an inhabitant of 

 those parched and burning climates, where it rains very sel- 

 dom, and where water, in general, is very scarce. Moreover, 

 the inverse proportion in the quantity of water, drank by the 

 confined ostrich, in Paris, in summer and winter, proves that 

 the greater or less restriction of the confinement, must be 

 taken into consideration among the causes of the thirst which 

 this bird exhibited. 



Notwithstanding the advantages which the ostrich might 

 derive from its strength, in opposition to other animals, it 

 never attacks any. When forced to defend itself, it does so 

 with its bill, the spinous appendages of the wings, and with 

 the feet. In other cases, if the odds be ever so little against 

 it, it has recourse to flight to withdraw itself from danger. 

 Still, however, its hard and thick skin, and its broad sternum, 

 which constitutes a cuirass, are no contemptible defensive 

 arms ; and Thevenot has seen it lay a dog prostrate with a 

 single kick. Pliny attributes to these birds the faculty of 

 flinging stones in this way ; but this appears somewhat doubt- 

 ful. In fact, it is not surprising that an animal like the 

 ostrich, endowed with so limited an instinct, should not be 



