to struggle desperately, and I thought he
would easily be our prize. I therefore dashed forward; but quick as
lightning he was on his legs again, running off in an opposite direction
to that which the hen had taken. "You follow him, and I will go after
the other," exclaimed Donald, perhaps thinking, from some remarks that I
had made, that I should not have the heart to knock over the mother and
her young brood. I had ridden some way in chase of the male ostrich,
when a bird appeared in the distance, towards which he immediately
directed his course, fancying, perhaps, that it was his own hen and her
young ones. He was a long way ahead of me, and I had lost all hope of
overtaking him, for my horse was already beginning to pant with
exertion, when the report of a rifle came from the direction where I saw
the other bird, and immediately my chase rolled over on the sand, the
stranger rushing towards him, while three black heads appeared from some
low rocks a little way beyond. Poor fellow! He deserved a better fate!
The stranger bird turned out to be one of Donald's Hottentots, who,
with his companions, had been fortunately in the right direction to
intercept him. I insisted on appropriating the tail of the bird,
asserting that the Hottentots would not have killed him had I not chased
him up to them.

My horse being by this time well tired, we set off to overtake the
waggon. Late in the day Donald arrived with the hen-ostrich over his
saddle, his back and head ornamented with the feathers, and half a dozen
young birds hanging from the crupper.

"Well, he does cut a curious figure!" exclaimed Leo, who saw Donald
approaching. "If I had seen him for the first time, I should have taken
him to be a fledged centaur--a mixture of man, quadruped, and bird."

Donald was inclined to claim the feathers I had appropriated; but Senhor
Silva coming to my support, it was agreed that they were mine by right
of conquest; and I had the satisfaction of presenting them to my fair
cousins--the first trophies of the chase which I had deemed worthy of
their acceptance.

We obtained, during the following days, a further supply of ostrich
eggs, which, with the birds we had killed, gave us as much food as we
required. We found it, when moving forward, very necessary to be
careful not to deviate from the right course. Frequently over the
country where there were no tracks, and often no landmarks, this was
very difficult. Often it was