166 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



witch doctors, and all ; and they seemed both 

 contented and fond of the two white men. 



As we walked about we learned much of the 

 ostrich business ; and in the course of our ten 

 days' visit we came to a better realization of how 

 much there is to think of in what appears basically 

 so simple a proposition. 



In the nesting time, then, the Hills went out 

 over the open country, sometimes for days at a 

 time, armed with long high-power telescopes. 

 With these fearsome and unwieldy instruments 

 they surveyed the country inch by inch from 

 the advantage of a kopje. When thus they 

 discovered a nest, they descended and appro- 

 priated the eggs. The latter, hatched at 

 home in an incubator, formed the nucleus of a 

 flock. 



Pass the raising of ostrich chicks to full size 

 through the difficulties of disease, wild beasts, 

 and sheer cussedness. Of the resultant thirty 

 birds or so of the season's catch, but two or three 

 will even promise good production. These must 

 be bred in captivity with other likely specimens. 

 Thus after several years the industrious ostrich 

 farmer may become possessed of a few really 

 prime birds. To accumulate a proper flock of 

 such in a new country is a matter of a decade or 



