ON THE TOES OF THE OSTRICH. 
69 
Within the last fortnight, I have procured another Ostrich, for the express 
purpose of satisfying myself on the point; and in this instance, though |I dis¬ 
sected the skin and tendons most carefully from the hone, my search was equally 
vain; and I am now prepared to assert, that whatever rudimentary toe may 
have been discovered in Dr. Riley’s Ostrich, there was certainly no third toe in 
my own; before I took off the skin, I could feel most distinctly that there was 
nothing like a rudimentary toe on the inside of the foot; and this may be seen 
by any one who examines attentively the foot of a living Ostrich. It will be 
observed, that the skin lies so closely to the bone, that there is no possibility of 
a toe being articulated there; and yet, that is the only situation in which one 
ought to be found, or would be found, if it existed at all. Cuvier, speaking of 
the number of phalanges in the toes of birds, says* :—“ those that have four toes, 
have the number and order of the phalanges as follows, 2, 3, 4, and 5,” 
Among those that have only three toes, the Cassowary has them thus dis¬ 
posed, 4, 4, 4. “ The rest have them thus, 3, 4, 5. The Ostrich, which has only 
two toes, has four in each.” 
To this may be added, that where there are four toes, and the full number of 
phalanges, the hallux, or hind toe, always has two phalanges, the inner toe three, 
the middle, four, and the outer, five; and the same arrangement takes place with 
respect to the situation and number of the phalanges of the front toes, where 
there are only three; the outer toe has always the greatest number of phalanges 
when there is a difference in number, except that, in the Scansorial birds (which, 
on account of their climbing habits, have two toes in front and two behind), the 
articulatory process, for the attachment of the outer toe, is turned backwards; 
and in that case, the outer hind toe is the one with the greatest number of 
phalanges. 
But I am at issue with Cuvier as to the number of phalanges, both in the 
Ostrich and the Cassowary;! in my specimens the phalanges increase in number 
regularly, as in all other birds I have examined, with two exceptions only; the 
phalanges in my Cassowary are three, four, and five; in the Ostrich four and five; 
as the number of phalanges clearly indicates that it is the middle and outer toe 
with which the Ostrich is furnished, had there been another it must necessarily 
have been in the inside of the foot; for it would be perfectly absurd to suppose 
that Nature, in her abhorrence at one deviation from her accustomed laws, 
attempted to cure that by committing another, which would unquestionably be 
* Comparative Anatomy , English Translation, Yol. I., page 411. 
t He makes these two birds exceptions to the general law of Nature, as to the number of pha¬ 
langes. I agree with him as to the number of exceptions, but not as to the birds which constitute 
these exceptions. 
