286 
THE OSTRICH. 
Jerdon, speaking of the Indian Bustard ( Enpodotis 
Edwardsii ), says, “ they will often swallow pebbles or 
any glittering object that attracts them. I took several 
portions of a brass ornament, the size of a No. 16 bullet, 
out of the stomach of one bustard.”* 
In reply to Hotspur’s inquiries for “ The madcap 
Prince of Wales,” and his comrades, at the rebel camp 
near Shrewsbury, he is told that they are 
“ All furnish’d, all in arms ; 
All plum’d like estridges that with the wind 
Bated ; like eagles having lately bath’d.” *f* 
Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. i. 
Looking to the antiquity of the fable of the Pelican’s 
feeding her young with her own blood, it is not surprising 
that Shakespeare has alluded to it when mentioning this 
bird. Laertes says :— 
“ To his good friends thus wide I ’ll ope my arms ; 
And, like the kind life-rendering pelican, 
Repast them with my blood.” 
Hamlet , Act iv. Sc. 5. 
* “ The Birds of India," iii. p. 610. 
f Some edidons read— 
“ All plum'd like estridges that wing the wind ; 
Bated like eagles having lately bath’d." 
But we have adopted the above reading in preference for three reasons : x. Con¬ 
sidering the rudimentary nature of the ostrich’s wing, Shakespeare would not have 
been so incorrect as to describe them as “winging the wind; ” 2. The word 
“bated,” if intended to refer to eagles, and not to ostriches, would have been 
more correctly “bating;” 3. The expression, “to bate with the wind,” is well 
understood in the language of falconry, with which Shakespeare was familiar. 
