128 OSTRICn- FARMING IN SOUTH AFEICA. 



parent birds, that they were inbred ; whereas, by a 

 little trouble they could have found out that the chicks 

 of old pairs that had always been healthy and reared 

 without difficulty were now as hard to rear as any, 

 and that the chicks of birds where the different sexes 

 were from different parts of the colony were as bad 

 as any others. Some again, laid it down as a fact that 

 artificial hatching had been at the bottom of it ; whereas 

 they could have known that the first outbreak occurred 

 ^^•ith men who had never used an incubator, and whose 

 original stock were wild birds. Besides, I have been 

 assured that our inland farmers find the chici^s captured 

 in the veldt from wild birds as hard to rear as the tame 

 ones. But this latter requires confirming before much 

 importance can be attached to the statement ; if it is 

 true, it tells against the only theory to which I have 

 attached much importance, namely, that the mischief has 

 been brought about by over-feeding the parent birds, 

 especially on grain. 



It was soon discovered that the birds were mere 

 machines in one sense — that, given unlimited food of a 

 stimulating nature, there was hardly any limit to the 

 number of eggs they would la^^' ; but it has been 

 observed by others, and our own experience somewhat 

 confirms it, that the eo^o-s under these circumstances are 

 not so laro^e. We do not believe that a few months' 



