with telling their names, or defcribing their toes or their plumage. It must often therefore happen, that instead of giving the history of a bird, we must be content to entertain the reader with merely its description. I will therefore divide the following history of birds, with Linnæus, into fix parts: in the firft of which I will give fuch as Briffon has ranged among the rapacious birds; next thofe of the pie kind; and thus go on through the fucceeding claffes, till I finish with those of the duck kind. But before

I enter upon a systematic detail, I will beg leave to give the hiftory of three or four birds, that do not well range in any fyftem. Thefe, from their great fize, are fufficiently distinguishable from the reft; and from their incapacity of flying, lead a life a good deal differing from the reft of the feathered creation. The birds I mean are the Ostrich, the Caffowary, the Emu, the Dodo, and the Solitaire.

CHA P. IV.

The Oftrich.

IN that offers feems to unite the N beginning with the feathered tribe, the

clafs of quadrupedes and of birds in itself. While it has the general outline and properties of a bird, yet it retains many of the marks of the

quadrupede.

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quadrupede. In appearance the oftrich resembles the camel, and is almoft as tall; it is covered with a plumage that resembles hair much more nearly than feathers, and its internal parts bear as near a fimilitude to, those of the quadrupede as of the bird creation. It may be confidered, therefore, as an animal made to fill up that chafin in nature which feparates one clafs of beings from another.

The oftrich is the largest of all birds. Tra vellers affirm that they are seen as tall as a man on horseback; and even some of those that have been brought into England were above seven feet high. The head and bill somewhat resemble thofe of a duck; and the neck may be likened to that of a swan, but that it is much longer; the legs and thighs resemble those of an hen; though the whole appearance bears a ftrong refemblance to that of a camel. But to be more particular; it is usually seven feet high from the top of the head to the ground; but from the back it is only four; fo that the head and neck are above three feet long. From the top of the head to the rump, when the neck is stretched out in a right line, it is fix feet long, and the tail is about a foot more. One of the wings, without the feathers, is a foot and an half; and being stretched out, with the feathers, is three feet.

The plumage is much alike in all; that is,

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generally

generally black and white; though some of them are said to be grey. The greatest feathers are at the extremities of the wings and tail, and the largest are generally white. The next row is black and white; and of the fmall feathers, on the back and belly, fome are white and others black. There are no feathers on the fides, nor yet on the thighs, nor under the wings. The lower part of the neck, about half way, is covered with ftill fmaller feathers than those on the belly and back; and thofe, like the former, alfo are of different colours.

All these feathers are of the fame kind, and peculiar to the oftrich; for other birds have feveral forts, fome of which are soft and downy, and others hard and strong. Oftrich feathers are almost all as foft as down, being utterly unfit to serve the animal for flying, and still less adapted to be a proper defence against external injury. The feathers of other birds have the webs broader on one fide than the other, but thofe of the oftrich have their shaft exactly in the middle. The upper part of the head and neck are covered with a very fine clear white hair, that shines like the briftles of an hog; and in fome places there are small tufts of it, confifting of about twelve hairs, which grow from a single fhaft about the thickness of a pin.

At the end of each wing, there is a kind of fpur almost like the quill of a porcupine. It is

an

an inch long, being hollow and of an horny fubftance. There are two of these on each wing; the largest of which is at the extremity of the bone of the wing, and the other a foot lower. The neck seems to be more flender, in proportion to that of other birds, from its not being furnished with feathers. The skin in this part is of a livid flesh colour, which some improperly would have to be blue. The bill is fhort and pointed, and two inches and an half at the beginning. The external form of the eye is like that of a man, the upper eye-lid being adorned with eye-lashes which are longer than those on the lid below. The tongue is fmall, very fhort, and compofed of cartilages, ligaments, and membranes, intermixed with fleshy fibres. In fome it is about an inch long, and very thick at the bottom. In others it is but half an inch, being a little forked at the end.

The thighs are very fleshy and large, being covered with a white skin, inclining to redness, and wrinkled in the manner of a net, whose meshes will admit the end of a finger. Some have very finall feathers here and there on the thighs; and others again have neither feathers nor wrinkles. What are called the legs of birds in this are covered before with large fcales. The end of the foot is cloven, and has two very large toes, which, like the leg, are covered with fcales. These toes are of unequal fizes. The

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largest,