e black and
the ostrich's white, he paints his legs with white, and taking his bow
and arrow in his hand, sets off for the chase. It is extraordinary how
admirably he mimics the ostrich--now stops, as if to feed, then turns
his head as if keeping a look-out for enemies. Now he walks along
slowly, then trots, just as the ostrich does, till he gets within
bow-shot. With seldom erring aim he then pulls his bow. Instead of
following the bird he has struck, however, when the others run away, he
runs also. Should any wary old bird suspect that all is not right, and
come towards him, he endeavours to escape; but if the bird approaches
him, to avoid a stroke of its claws, or a blow from its wing, he
sometimes throws off his disguise, which he leaves on the ground, and
runs away to a distance to be prepared to pull his bow. He generally
uses poisoned arrows, dipped in the milky juice of the tree euphorbia.
A slight wound from his weapon quickly brings the ostrich to the ground.
Formerly, he told us, it was supposed that the ostrich left its eggs to
be hatched in the sand by the heat of the sun, as cold-blooded reptiles
are known to do, but this is not the case. The hen-ostrich sits upon
her eggs with great care, and as soon as the young are hatched, provides
them with nourishment; and as broken eggs are generally found outside
the nest, it is supposed that she keeps a certain number unhatched, that
she may feed the young birds on them. She generally hatches about a
dozen eggs; but the Hottentots play her a trick to induce her to lay a
larger number. As soon as they find out a nest, they watch till the
bird has left it to go in search of food, and then scrape out with a
long stick two or three at a time. On returning and finding the number
she expected deficient, she lays enough to supply their place, and thus
goes on from day to day, till she has laid upwards of forty in the
season. Timbo asserted that not only does man wage war against the
ostrich, but that a white vulture is particularly fond of her eggs. As
his beak is not sufficiently strong to break the shell, he seizes a
large stone between his talons, and soaring with it high into the air,
gets over the nest; he then lets it drop upon the eggs, seldom failing
to break a sufficient number to afford himself a repast. The young
ostriches, when they emerge from the nest, are about the size of
pullets. They are quickly able to follow the mother, who supplies them