18 OSTRICH-FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



The Ostrich in its wild state was originally found 

 over every part of South Africa ; but whether it lived 

 year in and year out in the grass veldt, or only came 

 there occasional!}'' when driven out of the more barren 

 parts by exceptional droughts, is now wrapped in obli- 

 vion. That it is always looked upon as essentially a bird 

 of the desert we know, but this may not have been from 

 choice — not that it would not naturally prefer the soft 

 succulent grasses of the moister parts, but that these 

 parts were where man found the readiest means of 

 existence, and usurped to the driving out of the Ostrich. 

 These parts, too, teem with animal life, and consequently 

 here were found the lion, the tiger, the wild dog and 

 jackal, ready to prey on the Ostrich and drive him into 

 the desert. 



The Ostrich has now been introduced into every part 

 of the Cape Colony, and appears to thrive well in all, 

 the high grass lands subject to much cold having as 

 yet proved the least adapted to the industry. But it 

 will take some years' more experience to prove which 

 parts are permanently the best. It may prove, as with 

 the sheep, that some farms on which they throve the 

 best the first few years eventually proved utterly 

 unadapted to them, presumably from certain herbs 

 essentially necessary to the health of the sheep being 

 so sparse on the land that they were quickly destroyed. 



