of drying them for food. "And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought Quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the Quails; he that gathered least, gathered ten homers; and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.'

After referring to this passage, the reader will peruse with interest the following extract from Stade's Travels in Turkey: "Near Constantinople, in the autumn, the sun is often obscured by the prodigious flights of Quails, which alight on the coasts of the Black Sea, near the Bosphorus, and are caught by means of nets spread on high poles, planted along the cliffs, some yards from its edge; against which, the birds, exhausted by their passage over the sea, strike themselves and fall. In October 1829, the Sultan sent orders to his admirals to catch four-hundred dozen; in three days they were collected, and brought to him alive, in small cages."

The Egyptians take them at harvest-time by thousands in nets, and, having stripped off their feathers, dry them in the burning sand, after which they are sold at but one penny a pound. The object of the Israelites, therefore, in spreading them around the camp, appears to have been to dry them.

The Psalmist, in his exhortation to praise God for his providential care of the Israelites, by feeding them in the wilderness, says: "The people asked, and He brought Quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven." †

* Numbers xi. 31, 32.

+ Psalm cv. 40.

THESE large birds are seen in flocks in the sandy deserts of Africa and Asia, and have sometimes been mistaken at a distance for cavalry. The Ostrich is different from birds in general in its manners and habits. Its wings are too small to raise it from the ground; its neck is covered with hair; its voice is a kind of mournful lowing; and it grazes on the plain with the zebra and other beasts.

Ostriches frequently do great injury to the farmers in the interior of Southern Africa, by entering their fields in flocks, and destroying the ears of wheat so

completely, that in a large tract of land it often happens that nothing but the bare straw is left behind.

Though the wings of the Ostrich are small, they are very useful in increasing its speed. When the wind blows in the direction which it is taking, it always flaps

them.

The Arabians hunt it on horseback for its plumage, beginning their chase with a gentle gallop. It then continues advancing, but not very rapidly, until it is worn out with fatigue; when, finding that it cannot escape, it either turns in despair on the hunters, or hides its head, and meets its fate.

Ostriches may be tamed; and few creatures are then more useful than they. The feathers are very valuable; the eggs are used for food and ornament; their skins for leather; their flesh is eaten; and they are moreover sometimes employed as horses. During Dr. Adamson's residence at Podor, a French factory on the southern bank of the river Niger, he saw a large Ostrich so tame, that two little black children were placed both together on its back, and carried by it several times round the village. It afterwards carried two men with great speed.

The Ostrich is gentle towards persons to whom it is accustomed, but fierce to strangers. Its powers of digestion are wonderful. It will swallow with voracity, rags, leather, wood, iron, or stone.

Three Ostrich-feathers, with the legend Ich Dien, or I serve, form the crest of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. The origin of this was as follows. The king of Bohemia, who fell at the battle of Cressy, A.D. 1346, had three Ostrich-feathers in his crest, with the above motto. These were assumed by Edward the Black Prince of Wales, and have been worn ever since by his successors, in memory of his triumph.

Reference is made in the Bible to the Ostrich.*

*Job xxxix. 13-17. Sam, iv. 3.

THIS bird is in many respects like the ostrich; the body is heavy, and the wings are so short, that it cannot raise itself from the ground to fly. It will swallow almost any thing which is offered to it, and which is not too large to pass down its throat. It is fond of fruit, vegetables, and eggs, and consumes large quantities of food. Cassowaries are found in the southeastern parts of Asia, and in Africa; but as they bear the climate of Europe much better than most animals from hot countries, many of them have been brought

to this part of the world, but they have never bred here like the Emu.

Bishop Stanley says of the Cassowaries and Emus; "They are lively birds, and frisk and dance away when roused, when they look very like a woolly cushion on the top of two poles. Like the ostrich they are stupid, and like it also run with amazing swiftness, so much so, that it is very difficult to run them down, unless by the swiftest dogs, and by them only in an open country."

The following animated description of the Cassowary is given in Mavor's "Elements of Natural History:”

"The most remarkable part of the Cassowary is the head, which is armed with a kind of helmet of a horny substance, extremely hard, and capable of resisting a violent blow. The eyes are of a bright yellow, and in short the whole conformation is strikingly majestic. It has the head of a warrior, the eye of a lion, the defence of a porcupine, and the swiftness of a courser. Yet though endowed with powers apparently formidable for its own defence, it never attacks other birds, and when pursued, it either kicks like a horse, or overturns its assailant by running against him, and treading him under foot."

There was one a few years since in the collection at Exeter Change. This bird was driven several times every day out of its cage by the keeper, in order to be shown to the visitors. It ran in an unconcerned manner about the room, allowed strangers to handle it, and, after showing itself off for a short time, marched quietly into its cage again.