Struthio. which are covered affume a different and more becoming plumage.

The beauty of a part of, this plumage, particularly the long feathers that compofe the wings and tail, is the chief reafon that man has been fo active in pursuing this harmless bird to its deferts, and hunting it with no fmall degree of expence and labour. The ancients used those plumes in their helmets; our military wear them in their hats; and the ladies make them an ornament in their drefs. Those feathers which are plucked from the animal while alive are much more valued than those taken when dead, the latter being dry, light, and fubject to be worm-eaten.

Befide the value of their plumage, fome of the favage nations of Africa hunt them alfo for their flesh; which they confider as a dainty. They fometimes also breed these birds tame, to eat the young ones, of which the females are said to be the greatest delicacy. Some nations have obtained the name of Struthophagi, or oflrich eaters, from their peculiar fondness for this food; and even the Romans themselves were not averse to it. Even among the Europeans now, the eggs of the oftrich are faid to be well- tafted, and extremely nourishing; but they are too fearce to be fed upon, although a single egg be a fufficient entertainment for eight

men.

As the spoils of the oftrich are thus valuable, it is not to be wondered at that man has become their moft affiduous purfuer. For this purpose, the Arabians train up their beft and fleeteft horfes, and hunt the oftrich still in view. Perhaps, of all other varieties of the chafe, this, though the most laborious, is yet the most entertaining. As foon as the hunter comes within fight of his prey, he puts on his horfe with a gentle gallop, fo as to keep the oftrich still in fight; yet not fo as to terrify him from the plain into the mountains. Of all known animals, the oftrich is by far the fwifteft in running; upon observing himself, therefore, purfued at a distance, he begins to run at firft but gently; either infenfible of his danger, or fure of efcaping. In this fituation, he somewhat refembles a man at full speed; his wings, like two arms, keep working with a motion correfpondent to that of his legs; and his speed would very foon snatch him from the view of his purfuers; but, unfortunately for the filly creature, inftead of going off in a direct line, he takes his courfe in circles; while the hunters ftill make a fmall courfe within, relieve each other, meet him at unexpected turns, and keep him thus ftill employed, still followed, for two or three days together. At laft, fpent with fatigue and famine, and finding all power of efcape impoffible, he endeavours to hide himself from thofe enemies he cannot avoid, and covers his head in the fand or the first thicket he meets. Sometimes, however, he attempts to face his purfuers; and though in general the most gentle animal in nature, when driven to defperation he defends himself with his beak, his wings, and his feet. Such is the force of his motion, that a man would be utterly unable to withstand him in the fhock.

The Struthophagi have another method of taking this bird: they cover themselves with an oftrich's 'fkin, and paffing up an arm through the neck, thus counterfeit all the motions of this animal. By this artifice they approach the oftrich, which becomes an eafy prey. He is fometimes alfo taken by dogs and nets; but the moft ufual way is that mentioned above.

When the Arabians have thus taken an oftrich, they cut its throat; and making a ligament below the opening, they shake the bird as one would rinfe a barrel; then taking off the ligature, there runs out from the wound in the throat a confiderable quantity of blood mixed with the fat of the animal; and this is confidered as one of their greatest dainties.

They next flea the bird; and of the skin, which is ftrong Struthio. and thick, fometimes make a kind of veft, which anfwers the purposes of a cuirass and a buckler.

There are others who, more compaffionate or more provident, do not kill their captive, but endeavour to tame it, for the purposes of supplying those feathers which are in fo great requeit. The inhabitants of Dara and Lybia breed up whole flocks of them, and they are tamed with very little trouble. But it is not for their feathers alone that they are prized in this domestic state; they are often ridden upon and used as horfes. Moore affures us, that at Joar he saw a man travelling upon an oftrich; and Adanfon afferts, that at the factory of Podore he had two oftriches, which were then young, the strongest of which ran swifter than the belt English racer, although he carried two negroes on his back. As foon as the animal perceived that it was thus loaded, it fet off running with all its force, and made feveral circuits round the village; till at length the people were obliged to ftop it by barring up the way. How far this ftrength and fwiftness may be useful to mankind, even in a polished state, is a matter that perhaps deferves inquiry.

II. The CASSOWARY (the Cafuarius of Linnæus, and Ga leated Caffowary of Dr Latham) was firft brought into Eu rope from Java by the Dutch about the year 1597. It is nearly equal in fize to the oftrich, but its legs are much thicker and ftronger in proportion. This conformation gives it an air of ftrength and force, which the fiercenefs and fin gularity of its countenance confpire to render formidable. It is five feet and an half long from the point of the bill to the extremity of the claws. The legs are two feet and an half high from the belly to the end of the claws. The head and neck together are a foot and an half; and the largest toe, including the claw, is five inches long. The claw alone of the leaft toe is three inches and a half in length. The wing is fo fmall that it does not appear, it being hid under the feathers of the back. In other birds, a part of the feathers ferve for flight, and are different from those that serve mere. ly for covering; but in the caffowary all the feathers are of the fame kind, and outwardly of the fame colour. They are generally double, having two long shafts, which grow out of a fhort one, which is fixed in the fkin. Thofe that are double are always of an unequal length; for fome are 14 inches long, particularly on the rump, while others are not above three. The beards that adorn the stem or shaft are about half-way to the end, very long, and as thick as an horse-hair, without being fubdivided into fibres. The ftem or fhaft is flat, fhining, black, and knotted below; and from each knot there proceeds a beard; likewife the beards at the end of the large feathers are perfectly black, and towards the root of a grey tawny colour; fhorter, more soft, and throwing out fine fibres like down; fo that nothing appears except the ends, which are hard and black; becaufe the other part, compofed of down, is quite covered. There are feathers on the head and neck; but they are fo fhort and thinly fown, that the bird's fkin appears naked, except towards the hinder part of the head, where they are a little longer. The feathers which adorn the rump are extremely thick; but do not differ in other refpects from the reft, excepting their being longer, The wings, when they are deprived of their feathers, are but three inches long; and the feathers are like thofe on other parts of the body. The ends of the wings are adorned with five prickles, of different lengths and thicknefs, which bend like a bow: thefe are hollow from the roots to the very points, having only that flight fubftance within which all quills are known to have. The longest of these prickles is 11 inches; and it is a quarter of an inch in diameter at the root, being thicker there than towards the extremity; the point feems broken off.

3

The

1

Stuart.

modern name of this river.

STRYPE (John), was defcended from a German family, born at London, and educated at Cambridge. He was vicar of Low Layton in Effex, and diftinguifhed himself by his compilations of Lives and Memoirs; in which, as Dr Birch remarks, his fidelity and induftry will always give a value to his writings, however deftitute they may be of the graces of ftyle. He died in 1737, after having enjoyed his vicarage near 68 years.

STUART (Dr Gilbert), was born at Edinburgh in the year 1742. His father Mr George Stuart was profef for of humanity in the univerfity, and a man of confiderable eminence for his claffical tafte and literature. For these accomplishments he was probably indebted in no small degree to his relation the celebrated Ruddiman, with whom both he and his fon converfed familiarly, though they afterwards united to injure his fame.

Gilbert having finished his claffical and philofophical ftudies in the grammar-fchool and univerfity, applied himself to jurisprudence, without following or probably intending to follow the profeffion of the law. For that profeffion he has been represented as unqualified by indolence; by a paffion which at a very early period of life he difplayed for gcneral literature; or by boundless diffipation:-and all these circumstances may have contributed to make him relinquish pursuits in which he could hope to fucceed only by patient perfeverance and ftri&t decorum of manners. That he did not waste his youth in idlenefs, is, however, evident from An Hiftorical Differtation concerning the Antiquity of the British Conftitution, which he published before he had com pleted his twenty-fecond year, and which had so much merit as to induce the univerfity of Edinburgh to confer upon the author, though fo young a man, the degree of LL. D. After a ftudious interval of fome years, he produced, a valuable work, under the title of Á View of Society in Europe, in its Progress from Rudeness to Refinement; or, Inquiries concerning the Hiftory of Laws, Government, and Manners. He had read and meditated with patience on the most important monuments of the middle ages; and in this volume (which speedily reached a fecond edition) he zimed chiefly at the praise of originality and invention, and discovered an industry that is feldom connected with ability and difcernment. About the time of the publication of the first edition of this performance, having turned his thoughts to an academical life, he asked for the profefforfhip of public law in the univerfity of Edinburgh. Accord ing to his own account he had been promised that place by the minifter, but had the mortification to fee the profefforfhip beftowed on another, and all his hopes blafted by the influence of Dr Robertson, whom he reprefented as under obligations to him.

To the writer of this article, who was a stranger to thefe rival candidates for hiftorical fame, this part of the story feems very incredible; as it is not eafy to conceive how it ever could be in the power of Dr Stuart to render to the learned Principal any effential fervice. It was believed in deed by the earl of Buchan, and by others, who obferved that the illiberal jealoufy not unfrequent in the world of letters, was probably the fource of this oppofition; which entirely broke the intimacy of two perfons who, before that time, were underflood to be on the moft friendly footing with each other. Ingratitude, however, is as likely to have Chalmers been the vice of Dr Stuart as of Dr Robertfon; for we in his Life have been told by a writer *, who, at least in one inftance, of Ruddihas completely proved what he affirms, that "fuch was Gil

Soon after this disappointment Dr Stuart went to London, where he became from 1768 to 1774 one of the writers of the Monthly Review. In 1772 Dr Adam, rector of the high school at Edinburgh, published a Latin Grammar, which he intended as an improvement of the famous Ruddiman's. Stuart attacked him in a pamphlet under the name of Busbby, and treated him with much feverity. In doing this, he was probably actuated more by some perfonal dislike of Dr Adam than by regard for the memory of his learned relation; for on other occafions he showed sufficiently that he had no regard to Ruddiman's honour as a grammarian, editor, or critic.

In 1774 he returned to his native city, and began the Edinburgh Magazine and Review, in which he difcuffed the liberty and conftitution of England, and distinguished himself by an inquiry into the character of John Knox the reformer, whofe principles he reprobated in the fevereft terms. About this time he revised and published Sullivan's Lectures on the Conflitution of England. Soon after he turned his thoughts to the hiftory of Scotland, and pub. lifhed Obfervations concerning its Public Law and Conftitutional History; in which he examined with a critical care the preliminary book to Dr Robertfon's Hiftory. His next work was The Hiftory of the Reformation; a book which deferves praife for the eafy dignity of the narrative, and for strict impartiality. His last great work, The Hiltory of Scotland from the Eftablishment of the Reformation to the Death of Queen Mary, which appeared in 1782, has been very generally read and admired. His purpose was to vindicate the character of the injured queen, and expofe the weaknefs of the arguments by which Dr Robertfon had endeavoured to prove her guilty: but though the ftyle of this work is his own, it contains very little matter which was not furnished by Goodall and Tytler; and it is with the arms which these two writers put into his hands that. Dr Stuart vanquished his great antagonist.

In 1782 he once more vifited London, and engaged in: the Political Herald and English Review;. but the jaundice. and dropfy increafing on him, he returned by fea to his native country, where he died in the house of his father on the 13th of Auguft 1786.

In his perfon Dr. Stuart was about the middle fize and juftly proportioned. His countenance was modeft and exe preffive, fometimes glowing with fentiments of friendship, of which he was truly fufceptible, and at others darting that fatire and indignation at folly and vice which appear in fome of his writings. He was a boon companion; and, with a constitution that might have stood the flock of ages, he fell. a premature martyr to intemperance. His talents were certainly great, and his writings are ufeful; but he feems to have been influenced more by paffion than prejudice, and in his character there was not much to be imitated.

STUCCO,. in building, a. compofition of white marble pulverifed, and mixed with platter of lime; and the whole being fifted and wrought up with water, is to be ufed like common plafter this is called by Pliny marmoratum opus, and albarium opus.

A patent has been granted to Mr B. Higgins for inventing a new kind of ftucco, or water-cement, more firm and durable than any heretofore. Its compofition, as ex

tracted

ftucen. tracted from the fpecification figned by himfelf, is as follows: "Drift-fand, or quarry (A) fand, which confifts chiefly of hard quartole flat-faced grains with fharp angles; which is the freeft, or may be most easily freed by washing, from clay, falts, and calcareous, gypseous, or other grains lefs hard and durable than quartz; which contains the fmalleft quantity of pyrites or heavy metallic matter infeparable by washing; and which fuffers the smallest diminution of its bulk in washing in the following manner-is to be preferred before any other. And where a coarse and a fine fand of this kind, and correfponding in the fize of their grains with the coarfe and fine fands hereafter described, cannot be easily procured, let fuch fand of the foregoing quality be chofen as may be forted and cleanfed in the following manner:

"Let the fand be fifted in ftreaming clear water, thro' a fieve which shall give paffage to all fuch grains as do not exceed one-fixteenth of an inch in diameter; and let the stream of water and the fifting be regulated so that all the fand, which is much finer than the Lynn-fand commonly ufed in the London glafs-houses, together with clay and every other matter fpecifically lighter than fand, may be washed away with the ftream, whilft the purer and coarser fand, which passes through the fieve, fubfides in a convenient receptacle, and whilft the coarse rubbish and rubble remain on the fieve to be rejected.

"Let the fand which thus fubfides in the receptacle be washed in clean ftreaming water through a finer sieve, fo as to be further cleanfed and forted into two parcels; a coar. fer, which will remain in the fieve which is to give paffage to such grains of fand only as are lefs than one-thirtieth of an inch in diameter, and which is to be faved apart under

the name of coarfe fand; and a finer, which will pafs thro' Stucco. the fieve and fubfide in the water, and which is to be faved apart under the name of fine fand.-Let the coarse and the fine fand be dried feparately, either in the fun or on a clean iron-plate, fet on a convenient furface, in the manner of a fand-heat (B).

"Let lime be chofen (c) which is ftone-lime, which heats the most in flaking, and flakes the quickeft when daly watered; which is the freshest made and closest kept; which diffolves in diftilled vinegar with the least effervescence, and leaves the smallest refidue infoluble, and in this refidue the smallest quantity of clay, gypsum, or martial matter.

"Let the lime chofen according to these important rules be put in a brass-wired fieve to the quantity of 14 pounds. Let the fieve be finer than -ither of the foregoing; the finer, the better it will be let the lime be flaked (D) by plunging it in a butt filled with foft water, and raising it out quickly and fuffering it to heat and fume, and by repeating this plunging and raising alternately, and agitating the lime, until it be made to pass through the fieve into the water; and let the part of the lime which does not easily pass through the fieve be rejected: and let fresh portions of the lime be thus used, until as many (E) ounces of lime have paffed through the fieve as there are quarts of water in the butt. Let the water thus impregnated stand in the butt clofely covered (F) until it becomes clear; and through wooden (G) cocks placed at different heights in the butt, let the clear liquor be drawn off as faft (H) and as low as the lime fubfides, for use. This clear liquor I call the cementing liquor (1). The freer the water is from faline matter, the better will be the cementing liquor made with it. F 2 ss Let

A) "This is commonly called pit-fand.

;

(G)" Brafs-cocks are apt to colour a part of the liquor.