2SS 



cassell's book of birds. 



is amied witli a large, broad, blunt claw. The wings are furnislied with waving plumes, and two bare 

 shafts, not unlike porcupine's quills. In this bird the sternum has no keel, but is simply convex, 

 shield-like, and covered with a callous pad or elastic cushion, having a hard rough surface unclothed 



THE OSTRICH [StriUhto cmneliis]. 



with feathers, on which the birds support their bodies when reposing on the ground. The thick 

 curly plumage differs in its coloration according to the sex of the bird. In the male the small rump- 

 feathers are coal-black, the flowing wing and tail feathers of a dazzling whiteness. The colour of the 

 female is a bro\vnish grey, mingled with dirty white. The young resemble the mother after the first 

 moulting. The height of the fiilly-grown male is eight feet, and his length from the tip of the beak 



