152 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



farm-yard, eating the young goslings, swallowing them like 

 oysters. It was amusing to go with Mr. McKellar into one of 

 his breeding paddocks ; here a pair of ostriches were brooding 

 on a nest of eggs, dividing, as usual, the labour between them. 

 The cock was very savage and attacked all intruders, so his 

 master had a long pole with a fork at the end of it, and 

 when the ostrich ran at the party, he caught its neck in the 

 fork. The ostrich was excessively enraged, but soon had to give 



in. 



A kick from an ostrich is well known as very dangerous. 

 The only thing to do when attacked without means of defence, 

 Mr. McKellar said, is to lie flat down and let the bird walk on 

 you till he is tired. I was astonished at the brightness of the 

 red colouring developed on the front of the legs of the cock 

 bird during the breeding season. The ornamental appearance 

 of the bird is greatly enhanced by it. 



A narrow but strong and high pen was provided for plucking 

 the birds in. They are driven into it and held fast. It is found 

 better to pluck the feathers out than to cut them off. The 

 stumps, if left in, are apt to cause trouble. 



Young ostriches, when first from the egg, have curious horny 

 plates at the tips of their feathers, like those in the feathers of 

 one of the Indian jungle fowls, and some other birds not in the 

 least related to one another. 



The Cape Peninsula becomes very narrow towards its ter- 

 mination, and ends in two capes, Cape Point, on which is 

 the lighthouse, and the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape of Good 

 Hope itself is a mass of rock terminating in perpendicular cliffs 

 towards the sea, but with ledges here and there on which 

 numbers of cormorants (Phalaeocorix capensis) nest. 



Behind the terminal rocky mass is a waste of white sand, 

 horribly dazzling to the eyes in bright sunshine. Similar sand, 

 loose and deep, so that one's foot sinks into it at every step, lies 

 all around the farm-house, but is more or less covered with 

 bushes. This sand is terribly tiring to walk on, but after a little 

 rain the various animals can be tracked on it as easily as on fresh 

 snow, and it is thus that they are best hunted. 



The boys thus find numbers of small tortoises {Testvdo 



