256 BIRDS OF DAMARA LAND. 



ber, we found it necessary to be contented with what we had 

 bagged. 



" On returning to the bay, however, the next morning in a 

 mule-cart, Mr. Galton again encountered the same birds with 

 the remainder of the family, and, after a short race, captured six 

 more of the chicks.'* 



I am not able to offer any opinion as to how far Mr. Andersson 

 was correct in believing that more than one race of Ostrich 

 exists in Southern Africa; but that the ordinary South- African 

 Ostrich, for which I proposed the specific name of australis in 

 the 'Ibis' for 1868, p. 253, differs from the true Struthio 

 camelus of North Africa, I cannot doubt. 



Mr, A. D. Bartlett, the experienced and observant superinten- 

 dent of the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London, 

 informs me that the skin which is visible on the thighs and 

 other bare parts of the northern Ostrich is always flesh- 

 coloured, whilst in the southern Ostrich it is invariably bluish, 

 excepting the angle of the gape, which is flesh-coloured, as are 

 also the cere and the scutellations of the tarsi and feet. 



Mr. Bartlett is also of opinion that the average height of the 

 southern is somewhat greater than that of the northern Ostrich, 

 and that in the male of the southern race the black portions of 

 the plumage are deeper in colour than in the male of the 

 northern bird. 



The Rev. H. B. Tristram, in a paper on the ornithology of 

 Northern Africa, published in the ' Ibis ' for 1860, thus describes, 

 at p. 74, the differences between the eggs of the northern and 

 southern Ostrich : — " I may remark that the egg of the North- 

 African Ostrich seems to differ decidedly from that of the Cape 

 bird. I have seen hundreds of specimens, and always found 

 them rather larger than the southern eggs which we generally 

 see in England, and quite smooth, with an ivory-polished sur- 

 face and free from any punctures. Until I found tlie eggs 

 myself, I was under the impression that tliey might be jjolished 

 by the Arabs ; but this is a mistake.'' 



Mr. P. L. Sclater, in his paper on the Struthious birds living, 

 in 1860, in the menagerie of the Zoological Society, published 

 in the Society's 'Transactions,' vol. iv., speaks, at p. 354., of the 



