72 OSTRICH-FARMING IN SOUTH- AFRICA. 



fence of their camp, starving and fretting, and at last 

 compelling the farmer to herd them in their camp. 



In the fearful droughts to which every part of South 

 Africa is more or less subject, there vv^ill occasionally 

 come a time when on the very best of veldt there is 

 little for the birds to eat, when even the spec boom 

 shrivels and seems to lose its sustaining power as food : 

 luider these circumstances grain alone will not keep the 

 birds in a healthy condition. And it is in these times 

 that the farmer with plenty of carl prickly pear reaps 

 the advantage, as he can then bring the plucking birds 

 into smaller camps, and either with large butchers' 

 knives, or with the machines known as Ostrich food- 

 cutters, and which are made for the purpose, cut up 

 once a day as much of it as they can eat. This, with 

 a pound of grain each daily, will keep them in good 

 trim. 



The prickly i)ear, especially the thorny kind, is a 

 great nuisance in the summer when the fruit is ripe, as, 

 if other food is scarce, the birds will go for the fruit 

 and get the little thorns in their eyes, sometimes almost 

 blinding themselves for a time ; but, if left alone, in a 

 few days they recover, but often not before they have 

 become terribly thin. 



The plucking birds should have access to water, and 

 be well supplied with crushed bones ; if a few heaps of 



