68 
ON THE TOES OF THE OSTRICH. 
in its dark dungeon, till once more set at liberty for new enterprizes and new 
adventures. 
I shall resume the further consideration of the Gravel-beds in my next letter. 
I am, my dear Sir, 
Yours faithfully, 
Forthampton , near Tewkesbury , E. L. 
Sept. 16, 1838. 
ON THE TOES OF THE AFRICAN OSTRICH, AND THE NUMBER 
OF PHALANGES ON THE TOES OF OTHER BIRDS.* 
By Thomas Allis, 
Curator of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. 
Two years since, when on a visit in Bristol, I was told by several of my sci¬ 
entific friends of that city, that Dr. Riley (who, I believe, was Lecturer on 
Comparative Anatomy to the Bristol Medical School) had discovered a third but 
rudimentary toe in the foot of the African Ostrich. I do not know whether the 
subject was ever made public in any scientific work; but I think I saw it an¬ 
nounced in one of the Bristol papers; and I have heard it adverted to in London 
and other places. I confess I was not a little surprised at this information, as I 
had alread} 7, mounted two skeletons of the African Ostrich, without observing 
any such toe. In one instance, the bones were taken from the skin before they 
came into my possession, and as I found that skeleton imperfect in another par¬ 
ticular, I did not place much dependence on that; in the other specimen, the 
skeleton of which I took carefully from the skin myself, I certainly did not 
look expressly for a third toe, never having heard of, or suspected the existence 
of such a member; and, therefore, though I doubted the correctness of what I 
heard, yet I did not feel in a condition to contradict it. 
Among Mammalia we have animals with only two or three external toes, 
which have rudimentary toes concealed beneath the skin; but when this is the 
case, we find articulatory processes for the attachment of these internal and 
rudimentary toes. On my return home, I minutely examined my skeletons, to 
see if I could discover any process to which this newly-described toe could by 
any possibility be articulated; but my search was vain, and my doubts of its 
existence were consequently increased. 
* Read at the Newcastle Meeting of the British Association j and communicated to this Jour¬ 
nal, through Mr. Edwin Lankestek, by the author.— Ed. 
