[166.] The substance of the above remarks was contributed by the author in an article published in The Zoologist for 1867, p. 744.
[167.] “The Birds of India,” iii. p. 610.
[168.] Some editions 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: 1. Considering 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.
[169.] Cinquième séries, tom. viii. pp. 285–293.
[170.] Ibis, 1868, pp. 363–370.
[171.] “Oiseaux Fossiles de la France,” p. 230.
[172.] “Synopsis,” iii. p. 577 (1785).