424 
BLACK OSTRICH. 
Struthio Camelus. Rati. Syn. p. 36 . 1 . — Wills. Orn. lOJ. pi. 
25. — Driss. Orn. 5. 3. — Lmn. Syst. Nat. 1 . 265 . — Gmel. Syst. 
Nat. 1 726 . — Lath. Ind. Orn. 2 . 063. 1 . 
L’Autruche. Bujf'. Ois, 1. 398 . pi. 29 . — Buj^. PI. Enl. 457 . 
female. 
Black Ostrich. Broim. III. Zool.pl. 16 . — Alb. Birds. 3. pi. 53. 
Gent. Mag. 18. pi. in p. 580. — Spar. Voy. \.p. 130. 2. p. 81. — 
Lath. Gen. Syn. 5, 6. pi. y\. — Lath. Syn. Sup. 230. — Lath. 
Syn. Sup. II. 2S8. — Bing. Anim. Biog, 2. p. 2/3. 
This gigantic species is at once the largest and 
most remarkable of this class, exceeding all birds 
in its extraordinary magnitude, often measuring 
upwards of eight feet in height, and as many in 
length, from the tip of the beak to the end of the 
tail, but to the top of the back it seldom exceeds 
four feet : its general appearance is peculiarly 
striking and attractive : its head is very small in 
proportion : its beak is four inches and a half in 
length, horn-coloured, with the tip dusky: the 
eyelids are fringed with hair ; irides hazel : the 
head and greater part of the neck are flesh- 
coloured, destitute of feathers, but slightly covered 
with a few scattered hairs : the feathers of the 
lower part of the neck and those of the body 
are black, with their webs peculiarly constructed, 
being very loose and somewhat crisped in ap- 
pearance : the quills and tail-feathers are of a pure 
snowy white, beautifully waving with the air, and 
some of them tipped and fringed with black : the 
wings have each of them two spurs, about one 
inch in length ; the sides of the body and thighs 
dre naked : the breast is armed with a hard callous 
substance : the legs are strong, of a greyish brown 
