CHAPTER VI 



CHASED BY AN OSTRICH 



PROBABLY the most amusing incident 

 that happened to any member of the 

 Roosevelt African expedition occurred to 

 me before we had been in Africa a week; I was 

 chased by an ostrich. The ostrich was not a 

 wild one, for the wild birds are far too cunning 

 to do anything so adventurous. We saw them 

 feeding in pairs and small groups on the veldt, 

 but they were too shy to be easily approached. 



The ostrich that gave chase to me was a huge 

 bird that belonged to an English settler by the 

 name of Percival. It was a member of a fine 

 flock he had reared from eggs brought to him 

 by the natives. He valued the old birds at 

 four hundred dollars each. 



At night Percival kept the ostriches in a 

 kraal (brush enclosure) and early each morn- 

 ing let them out to feed on grass, while a Kikuyu 

 boy stood guard. The native was armed with 

 an eight-foot pole, at the end of which was a 



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