CHAPTER XXI. 



TAPE-\yORMS. 



Tape- WORMS are now nearly universal in the domesti- 

 cated Ostrich till it attains its adult age ; when, 

 unless under excej^tionally unfavourable circumstances, 

 the bird throws oft' the worm by its own unaided powers. 

 For some yeai's after their first domestication this 

 was an unknown disease. It seems first to have made 

 its appearance in the extreme northern districts, and 

 the manner in which diseases are so rapidly spread 

 when of a communicative nature was very clearly 

 demonstrated in the way in which this was brought into 

 Albany. On a neighbouring farm to my own, a specu- 

 lator left some affected birds to rest whilst he went to 

 seek a market for them. The owner of the farm, having 

 never seen the disease, did not notice it till I pointed 

 out to him the joints of the worm that were deposited 

 on the bird's excrement, and which are now so well 

 known to every colonist ; but when I urged him to 

 hurry the birds on elsewhere, he thought I was unduly 

 alarmed. However, the birds in a few days were 

 sold and moved on into the Uitenhague district ; but a 



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