Order STRUTHIONES. 
We now come to birds generally of large size^ whose wings^ 
when present^ are used chiefly as sails^ to help them in run- 
ning. Their powers of motion depend on their legs ; and 
we find these organs specially adapted^ in length and strength^ 
and in the condition of the toes^ to enable them to run over 
the ground with ease. Their bones too are heavier than 
those of birds in general. Many of them seem to be gra- 
dually getting rarer as civilization extends ; and some^ such 
as the Dinornis of New Zealand^ are now extinct. Sir 
Stamford Eaffles^ we remember, in one of his letters, writes 
of the cassowary as being now confined to one smallish 
island in the Eastern Seas ; so that in course of time, and 
perhaps at no very remote epoch, we may know of ostriches, 
emus, and cassowaries only by books, drawings, and spe- 
cimens preserved in museums. 
They are hardly susceptible of being domesticated, and if 
domesticated could not be of much use. Mr. Miers^ speaks 
of having seen a pair of the South American Bheaj in 1819, 
* Travels in Chili, etc., vol. i. p. 212. 
