's health, which you ought to prefer before
all considerations of the world or flesh whatsoever. For which yet you
have cast me into many calamities, and yourself into many troubles.
But I forgive you all, and pray God to do soe likewise. For the rest,
I commend unto you Mary, our daughter, beseeching you to be a good
father to her, as I have heretofore desired. I must entreat you also
to respect my maids, and give them in marriage, which is not much,
they being but three, and to all my other servants, a year's pay
besides their due, lest otherwise they should be unprovided for.
Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.
Farewell."

* * * * *

THE NATURALIST.

* * * * *

SPEED AND DIET OF THE OSTRICH.

In the _Annals of Sporting_ it is observed:--"If we are to place
confidence in traveller's tales, the ostrich is swifter than the
Arabian horse. During the residence of Mr. Adamson at Pador, a French
factory on the south side of the river Niger, he says that two
ostriches, which had been about two years in the factory, afforded him
a sight of a very extraordinary nature. These gigantic birds, though
young, were of nearly the full size. They were (he continues) so tame,
that two little blacks mounted both together on the back of the
larger. No sooner did he feel their weight, than he began to run as
last as possible, and carried them several times round the
village,--and it was impossible to stop him, otherwise than by
obstructing the passage. This sight pleased me so much, that I wished
it to be repeated, and, to try their strength, directed a full-grown
negro to mount the smallest, and two others the larger. This burden
did not seem at all disproportioned to their strength. At first, they
went at a pretty sharp trot; but when they became heated a little,
they expanded their wings, as though to catch the wind, and moved with
such fleetness that they seemed scarcely to touch the ground. Most
people have, at one time or other, seen the partridge run, and
consequently must know that there is no man able to keep up with it;
and it is easy to imagine, that if this bird had a longer step, its
speed would be considerably augmented. The ostrich moves like the
partridge, with this advantage; and I am satisfied that those I am
speaking of would have distanced the fleetest race-horses that were
ever bred in England. It is true, tha