OSTRICH. 



7 



from fix to eight feet in height *. It has a fmall head, not 

 much unlike that of a Goofe -, the bill is alfo fomewhat fimilar, 

 but lefs deprefled, and four inches and a half in length, horn- 

 coloured, with a dufky tip : irides hazel ; eyelids befet with 

 hairs : the head, and greateft part of the neck, are bare of fea- 

 thers, of a flefh-colour, here and there befet with a few fcattered 

 hairs : the lower parts of the neck and body are covered with 

 black feathers, which are Angularly loofe in their webs, and 

 totally unlike thofe of any other bird : the quill feathers, and 

 thofe of the tail, are of a perfect fnowy white, fome of them here 

 and there fringed or tipped with black, and are long and beau- 

 tifully waved in fhape : on each wing are two fpurs, about an 

 inch in length ; and on the breaft is a callous, bare, and hard 

 fubftance, ferving the bird to reft on when it firft bends forwards 

 to fit on the ground: the thighs and fides of the body are 

 naked : the legs are ftrong, of a greyifh brown, and furnifhed 

 with two toes only* the outer one of which is very fhort, and. 

 without a claw. 



The female differs from the male in having thofe feathers 

 brown, which are black in the male. 



This bird inhabits Africa, and the parts of Afia adjoining to 

 it, with the feveral iflands in the neighbourhood, and is in very 

 great plenty about the Cape of Good Hope. The egg of this cor- 

 refponds well with the fize of the bird, being as big as a child's 

 bead, and white in colour f : the female is fuppofed to lay fifty 



Femalb. 



Place and' 

 Manners^ 



* Two Ojlriehes were fhewn in London in the year 1750 ; the male was ten feet 

 in height, and weighed three hundred weight and a quarter. — See Gent. Mag.. 

 vol. xx. p. 536. 



f See a figure in Klein, Ov. pi. 1- 



or 



