SHORT-WINGED CURSORIAL BIRDS (Brevipennes).
This order comprises a number of remarkable birds, conspicuous among which are the OSTRICHES, with wings so strangely disproportionate to the size of their bodies as to have given rise to many strange fables amongst the Eastern nations concerning their origin. In North-eastern Asia the legend runs that these huge birds, inflated with pride at their superior size and strength, looked down upon their feathered companions with contempt, and, desirous of exhibiting their powers of flight, upon one occasion made a vain attempt to reach the sun. Phœbus, angry at such presumption, punished their temerity by singeing off their wings, and thus causing them to fall heavily to earth. In so doing they struck their breasts violently upon the ground, and received a mark that, together with the shortness of their pinions, has been reproduced through all successive generations, as a terrible warning against vainglorious aspirations.
Another and more ancient fable represents the Ostrich as the offspring of the camel and some strange feathered occupant of the desert.
The members of this order are birds of great size, with rather short, blunt beaks, in which the orifices of the nostrils are placed at a short distance behind the tip. In one family, however, the bill is comparatively long and slender. The head is moderately large, the neck very long, and the body exceedingly powerful; the wings are extraordinarily short, while the legs, on the contrary, are long and muscular; the large strong foot is furnished with two, three, or four toes. The feathers and quills of the tail are undeveloped, and the rest of the plumage is so lax as to have somewhat the appearance of hair. The sight and hearing of the BREVIPENNES is excellent, but their senses of taste and feeling very deficient. All are shy and cautious in their habits, but on the approach of danger they exhibit but little sagacity in their wild attempts at flight. Amongst themselves they live at peace, except during the period of incubation, and when in captivity show themselves to be almost incapable of attachment.
Africa produces one, America three, and Oceania no fewer than nine species of these birds, whilst in Europe and Asia they are unrepresented. Everywhere they occupy dry, sandy plains or tracts covered with scanty vegetation, and wander over these dreary wastes, either alone or in flocks, in search of the plants and small creatures upon which they subsist. Although not actually voracious in their appetites, no substance, however indigestible, seems to come amiss to them, and a variety of objects are frequently swallowed that their stomachs utterly reject. The incubation of these birds is very remarkable. Some are monogamous, others polygamous; but in all cases, or at least with few exceptions, the male usually undertakes all the parental duties, and behaves in every respect as a "mother" to the young, whilst the female, after depositing her eggs, exhibits but slight interest in her progeny.
THE OSTRICH.
