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were at so great a distance from the Cape, that I could only draw 

 those I met with in cages, or in the public menagerie. In South 

 America, where the loveliest rallies skirt the city of St. Sebastian, 

 every walk presented beautiful subjects for the pencil; not so the 

 country near the Cape. The African deserts nourish thousands 

 of ostriches; some were kept in the menagerie, with the secretary 

 bird, and others from the same wilds; together with the cassowary, 

 the columba-coronata, and many curious birds from the Dutch 

 settlements in the East Indies. 



The ostrich is so well known in the African ornithology, that it 

 would lie needless to describe it. Among other peculiarities, it is 

 said to digest stones and iron. I am ignorant of their digestive 

 powers, but they certainly voraciously devour pieces of glass, iron, 

 and similar substances, when thrown into the menagerie. The 

 ostrich is the largest of the feathered tribes, and is called in Arabia 

 the camel-bird, from ils resemblance to that animal; it runs swiftly 

 over the desert, by means of its long legs and expanded wings, 

 which arc not formed for an aerial flight. The Arabians, CafTrees, 

 and Hottentots, hunt them for their feathers, and eat the flesh of 

 the young ones; their eggs, fifteen inches in circumference, also 

 afford a plentiful meal. Among the luxuries of the Roman em- 

 perors we read of Heliogabalus having destroyed six hundred 

 ostriches to furnish one dish of brains. The large thick shell of 

 this bird is frequently carved with subjects from scripture history 

 and other ornaments. Not rivalling the sculpture of an Italian 

 basso-relievo, they are sold for a trifle tp the passing stranger by 

 the slaves who carve them ; as are also other of these egg-shells cut 



