ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 79 
ed by the Ostrich, the Emu, and the Cassowary, the pad- 
docks being known as 
The Ostrich Enclosure* 
The Ostriches have about one-half of the space allotted 
to this group, and at present they are illustrated only by 
the Ostrich of Africa, Struthio camelus , male and female, 
so-called from the ancients supposing that it had an affinity 
to the other denizen of the desert, the Camel, to which 
the ostrich has certainly a marked resemblance when a 
number are' seen at a distance, one following another 
in Indian file, over a sandy expanse ; as the way in which 
this bird carries its head and neck, when moving along, 
also the short thick body and long massive legs produce 
an outline very like that of a camel. Ostriches are the 
largest living representatives of birds, but it is not long 
that they have been so, because the comparatively recent 
remains of more gigantic birds, even with the feathers 
and flesh attached to some of the parts, have been 
found in New Zealand, and an example is the Moa. 
The Ostrich differs from other birds in many points 
of its organization, and in the very important circum¬ 
stance that it is incapable of flight ; the whole force of 
its structure being concentrated, as it were, in the long 
robust limbs which endow it with great running powers. 
It has a much elongated neck, with a keen, liquid, far- 
seeing eye, in its rather small head, shaded by long eye¬ 
lashes, and it has a rather large car. The breast-bone of 
the ostrich has no ridge on it anteriorly, as in the great 
majority of other birds, and this modification has re¬ 
ference to the absence of the powers of flight, there 
being no muscles requiring a large area of attachment, 
