the ostjiicii. 
and which by migrating make an habitation in all parts of 
the earth ; but in general every climate has birds peculiar 
to itself. In all countries birds are much longer lived 
than quadrupeds. The swan is said to live near three 
hundred years. They are however greatly inferior to 
quadrupeds in sense and docility. 
As the number of species in this order of animals is very 
numerous, amounting to above eight hundred, some de- 
gree of classification appears to be absolutely necessary 
We shall therefore arrange them in eight orders. The 
first will include the few birds which there are of the 
struthious, or ostrich order, or those which never rise from 
the earth. Ihe second consists of the rapacious birds; 
the third is the gallinaceous, or poultry order, at the con- 
clusion of which that which some authors have termed 
the columbine order, or the pigeon, and its varieties, is in- 
troduced ; the fifth includes the pies; the sixth the 
passerine, or sparrow kind ; the seventh the cloven-footed 
water-fowl, including those with pinnated feet; and the 
eighth tile web-footed water-fowl.* 
Of Birds of the Struthious Order. 
The Ostrich is a bird very anciently known, since it 
is mentioned in the oldest of books. It has furnished the 
sacred writers with some of their most beautiful imagery 
and its flesh was, even previous to the days of Moses, appa- 
i ently a common species of food, since we find it interdicted 
among other unclean animals by the Jewish legislator. 
l he ostrich is generally considered as the largest of birds 
but its size serves to deprive it of the principal excellence 
ol this class of animals, the power of flying. The medium 
weight of this bird may be estimated at seventy-five or 
eighty pounds, a weight which would require an immense 
power of wing to elevate into the atmosphere; and hence 
all those of the feathered kind which approach to the size 
of the ostrich, such as the touyou, the cassowary, the dodo 
neither possess, nor can possess the faculty of flight. The 
oead and bill of the ostrich somewhat resemble those of a. 
ouck ; and the neck may be compared to that of a swan 
but that it ,s much longer; the legs and thighs resemble 
those of a lien, though the whole appearance at a distance 
BuffoTi ll pvo'» ra ^h m . ent is I ,erfcctl y agreeable to that of our author, M. in 
v;e lla .ve placed the struthious order first, as behu? 
most considerable in magnitude and importance. Editor K 
