380 FOREIGN BIRDS. 



That man, with superior intelligence fraught, 

 On such occupation shall not waste a thought : 

 When death, if the animal for him must die, 

 Shall be sudden and safe, and escape in a sigh?* 



like a horse in its native climate, it is said to be very unma- 

 nageable and untractable. 



" O'er the wild waste the stnpid ostrich strays, 

 In devious search to pick her scanty meal, 

 Whose fierce digestion gnaws the temper'd stee!.' : 

 Mickle's Lusiad, Book v. 



Such statements, often made, that this bird can digest steel 

 or iron, are founded in mistake ; it is true the bird will swallow 

 pieces of iron, but there is no evidence whatever that they are 

 digested. 



The Rhea, Eintu, Rhea, American-Emeu, or American- 

 Osthich, is grey above, beneath white; it has three toes on 

 each foot, and a round callus behind. It is by far the largest 

 bird found in the American continent, it being about six feet 

 high; the neck is long, head small, beak flat; but, in other 

 respects, resembles the Cassowary. Its voracity ancr speed are 

 similar to the Ostrich. Found in almost every part of South 

 America. 



The nest is in a large hole in the ground, often with a little 



* The hunting of Birds with dogs, except as setters, is, in 

 this country, not now, I believe, practised ; it is devoutly to be 

 hoped that the hunting of other animals will ultimately give way 

 to a superior intelligence and the benevolent affections. The 

 author, when a school-boy, remembers being once on a hunting 

 excursion, and never but once ; that once was, for him, sufficient : 

 the hare was eaten up alive by the dogs ! he will never forget the 

 horror with which he beheld one of the gentlemen hunters exhibit 

 a leg, the only part left, with the fibres still quivering. See the 

 House-Sparrow's Speech, 



