The common opinion of the _Ostrich_, _Struthiocamelus_ or _Sparrow-Camel_ conceives that it digesteth Iron; and this is confirmed by the affirmations of many; beside swarms of others, _Rhodiginus_ in his prelections taketh it for granted, _Johannes Langius_ in his Epistles pleadeth experiment for it; the common picture also confirmeth it, which usually describeth this Animal with an horshoe in its mouth. Notwithstanding upon enquiry we find it very questionable, and the negative seems most reasonably entertained; whose verity indeed we do the rather desire, because hereby we shall relieve our ignorance of one occult quality; for in the list thereof it is accounted, and in that notion imperiously obtruded upon us. For my part, although I have had the sight of this Animal, I have not had the opportunity of its experiment, but have received great occasion of doubt, from learned discourses thereon. For _Aristotle_ and _Oppianus_ who have particularly treated hereof are silent in this singularity; either omitting it as dubious, or as the Comment saith, rejecting it as fabulous. _Pliny_ speaketh generally, affirming only, the digestion is wonderful in this Animal; _Ælian_ delivereth, that it digesteth stones without any mention of Iron; _Leo Africanus_, who lived in those Countries wherein they most abound, speaketh diminutively, and but half way into this assertion: _Surdum ac simplex animal est, quicquid invenit, absque delectu, usque ad ferrum devorat_: _Fernelius_ in his second _De abditis rerum causis_, extenuates it, and _Riolanus_ in his Comment thereof positively denies it. Some have experimentally refuted it, as _Albertus Magnus_; and most plainly _Ulysses Aldrovandus_, whose words are these: _Ego ferri frusta devorare, dum Tridenti essem, observavi, sed quæ incocta rursus excerneret_, that is, at my being at Trent, I observed the _Ostrich_ to swallow Iron, but yet to exclude it undigested again.