Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXVI, July 1852, Vol. VVarious
History
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXVI, July 1852, Vol. V
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
To have the stomach of an ostrich has become proverbial, and with good
reason; for this bird stands enviably forward in respect to its
wonderful powers of digestion, which are scarcely inferior to its
voracity. Its natural food consists entirely of vegetable substances,
especially grain; and the ostrich is a most destructive enemy to the
crops of the African farmers. But its sense of taste is so obtuse,
that scraps of leather, old nails, bits of tin, buttons, keys, coins,
and pebbles, are devoured with equal relish; in fact, nothing comes
amiss. But in this it doubtless follows an instinct: for these hard
bodies assist, like the gravel in the crops of our domestic poultry,
in grinding down and preparing for digestion its ordinary food.
There was found by Cuvier in the stomach of an ostrich that died at
Paris, nearly a pound weight of stones, bits of iron and copper, and
pieces of money worn down by constant attrition against each other, as
well as by the action of the stomach itself. In the stomach of one of
these birds which belonged to the menagerie of George the Fourth,
there were contained some pieces of wood of considerable size, several
large nails, and a hen's egg entire and uninjured, perhaps taken as a
delicacy from its appetite becoming capricious. In the stomach of
another, beside several large cabbage-stalks, there were masses of
bricks of the size of a man's fist. Sparrman relates that he saw
ostriches at the Cape so tame that they went loose to and from the
farm, but they were so voracious as to swallow chickens whole, and
trample hens to death, that they might tear them in pieces afterward
and devour them; and one great barrel of a bird was obliged to be
killed on account of an awkward habit he had acquired of trampling
sheep to death. But perhaps the most striking proof of the prowess of
an ostrich in the eating way, is that afforded by Dr. Shaw, who saw
one swallow bullet after bullet as fast as they were pitched,
scorching hot, from the mould.
A DULL TOWN.
Putting up for the night in one of the chiefest towns of
Staffordshire, I find it to be by no means a lively town. In fact, it
is as dull and dead a town as any one could desire not to see. It
seems as if its whole population might be imprisoned in its Railway
Station. The Refreshment-room at that station is a vortex of
dissipation compared with the extinct town-inn, the Dodo, in the dull
High-street.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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