and so Leo Africanus says of it, that it is of a very short memory, and presently forgets the place where its eggs are laid;neither hath he imparted to her understanding; many instances are given of its stupidity by historians, as that it will take anything that is offered to it to eat, stones, iron, &c.
; that it will thrust its head and neck into a thicket, fancying: it is hid and covered, and that none can see it; which Pliny remarks as an instance of its foolishness; though Diodorus Siculus takes this to be a point of prudence, for the preservation of those parts of it which are weakest.
Strabo gives another instance of its stupidity, its being so easily deceived by sportsmen, who, by putting the skin of an ostrich on their hands, and reaching out fruits or seeds to it, it will receive them of them, and be taken.
Others observe the smallness of their heads, and so of their brains, as an argument of their want of understanding; and it has been remarked, as a proof of their having but few brains, that Heliogabalus, the Roman emperor, had six hundred heads of ostriches dressed at once for his supper, for the sake of their brains .
hvh "oblivisci fecit eum", Montanus, Mercerus, Drusius, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens. Ut supra. (Desciptio. Africae, l. 9. p. 766.) Aelian. ut supra. (de Animal. l. 5. c. 21.) Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10.
c. 1. Ibid. (Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 1.) Ut supra. (Diodor. Sicul. Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 133.) Geograph. l. 16. p. 531. Lamprid. Vit. Heliogab. c.