BIRDS OF THE WORLD 



CHAPTER I 



The Ostrich-like Birds 



ORDERS — CASUARII, STRUTHIONES, 

 APTERYGES, AND CRYPTURI 



ALTHOUGH lowest in the matter of intelli- 

 gence, the Ostrich tribe are among the most 

 interesting of birds. In the first place, they 

 are the survivors of a much more ancient type, extinct 

 long before the advent of man upon the earth ; and in 

 the second, they have undergone most profound 

 changes in their anatomical structure. 



To begin with, all save the Tinamous of South 

 America have absolutely lost the power of flight, and 

 at so remote a period that the great keel of the breast- 

 bone, to which we have already referred, has entirely 

 disappeared. But, besides this, the wings have de- 

 generated to an extent met with in no other living 

 birds; and this is true also of the feathers. 



The first member of this Order to be considered is 

 the Emu, of Australia, the home of so many strange 

 forms of animal life. Next to the African Ostrich, 

 the largest of living birds, the Emu has little to dis- 

 tinguish it in the matter of beauty, its coarse-looking 



