REARING THE CHICKS. 133 



informed it has not done so in the long grass on the 

 coast. What is the secret of the old birds' success is 

 not very apparent, with the exception of the immense 

 amount of exercise they give them, as they keep them 

 on the trot from daylight till dark, and expose them to 

 the wet dews and cold in a way that would be fatal in 

 hand-rearing. When the chicks are a few days old, a 

 pair of birds will brood and nurse thirty, but these 

 should be as nearly as possible of one age. There is a 

 little difficulty when the old birds are sent back to their 

 camp, as the young birds fret. An excellent plan is to 

 put any old tame, lame, or other large bird with them. 

 They will qnickly take to it in the place of the parent 

 bird, but it will not brood them, so care must be taken 

 to house them in bad weather, and great care is required 

 to keep them tame. 



Some people have an idea that the mischief is 

 caused by a louse, with a blue body and red legs, 

 which fastens itself on the body of the chick, and in its 

 ears, and that even one or two of these are sufficient to 

 set up blood-poisoning. Now, we know that one little 

 red tick on a good-sized lamb can cause paralysis, and 

 eventually death if not removed, whilst its removal will 

 cause the lamb to recover in a few hours; so that we 

 must not be too ready to condemn this theory, strange 

 as it appears. It is said that this louse will always be 



