THE MUSEUM. 



115 



straight line, so that the hunter knows 

 how to proceed in order to meet it and 

 get within shot. 



It is often killed in South 

 Africa by men who envelope them- 

 selves in Ostrich skins, and admirably 

 imitating the manners of the bird, ap- 

 proach it near enough for their pur- 

 pose, without exciting its alarm, and 

 sometimes kill one after another. 



The eggs of the Ostrich are much 

 esteemed as an article of food by the 

 rude natives of South Africa, but civ- 

 ilized man has failed to cultivate a 

 taste for them. Each egg weighs 

 about three pounds. They are usual- 

 ly dressed by being set upright on a 

 fire and stirred about with a forked 

 stick, inserted through a hole in the 

 upper end. 



The thick shell is applied to many 

 uses, but particularly for water vessels. 

 In taking Ostrich eggs from the nest 

 the South African is careful not to 

 touch any with the hand, but uses a 

 long stick to draw them out, that the 

 birds may not detect the smell of the 

 intruder in which case they would for- 

 sake the nest. 



The great value of the feathers has 

 induced men of late years to engage in 

 the domestication of this bird, and Os- 

 trich farming is now a most lucrative 

 employment at the Cape of Good 

 Hope. It is said that a full-grown 

 bird yields one hundred feathers at a 

 picking, which sell at Cape Colony for 



about two hundred dollars. 



T. B. D. 



A Set of Owl's Eggs. 



On the 19th of March, 1S95, while 

 pursuing my favorite study, ornithology, 

 I came across a large nest high up in 

 an oak tree. I thought that this nest 



was a deserted hawk's nest, but on 

 looking closer, saw a feather fluttering 

 from one of the sticks which compos- 

 ed the nest. This discovery brought 

 up hopes of a beautiful set of hawk's 

 eggs, but imagine my joy, when on 

 sounding the tree with a club, I saw an 

 immense bird rise up and fly off, with- 

 out even so much as a scream. 



I could have shot the bird, but as I 

 had no climbing irons along, and as 

 the weather was very cold, I thought 

 that I had better leave the old bird to 

 keep the eggs from freezing. 



On the way home I concluded that 

 my immense bird was the Great Horn- 

 ed Owl Bilbo virginianus. I planned 

 to get this set of eggs on the 21st of 

 the month. So, taking a companion 

 along with me, we steered our course 

 for old Bilbos nest. As we neared 

 the place we looked for signs of life 

 and sure enough over the edge of the 

 nest we saw the two "horns," or ear 

 tufts of the owl, from which it gets 

 part of its name. The old bird, how- 

 ever, did not wait for us to come with- 

 in range, but rising in the nest to its 

 full height, and spreading its great 

 wings, it sailed away silently and ma- 

 jestically until it was buried in the 

 tangle of dark and leafless branches. 



My companion attempted to climb 

 the tree but it was so large in circum- 

 ference that he could not get his arms 

 half way around, we gave it up for 

 that day and determined to get both 

 bird and eggs the next day we could 

 get off from the town, which happen- 

 ed to be the 23d. This time we went 

 with a little better preparation. We 

 had prepared a lot of sticks to tack to 

 the tree, and we also had a rope to 

 encircle the tree. These things, be- 



