392 



The Living Animals of the World 



railway-guard, of an old male who charged a goods-train coming at full speed down a steep 

 gradient. The bird, as soon as he caught sight of the train, at once got on the lin^, "and 

 advanced fearlessly to fight the monster. As the screeching engine approached, he rushed 

 at it from straight in front, hissing angrily, and kicked. He was cut to pieces the next 

 moment." 



The Bedouin tribes hunt the ostrich on dromedaries, so also do the natives of Somaliland, 

 and when near enough shoot it with poisoned arrows. In the Sahara, Canon Tristram tells us 

 it is ridden down on horseback, a method of capture which the Sahara sportsman regards as 

 the greatest feat of hunting. 



"The Bushmen," says Mr. Harting, "like the Somalis, kill the ostrich with poisoned 

 arrows, or catch it very cleverly in pit-falls or with the lasso, and the Sukurieh and 

 Hadendawah tribes likewise use the lasso, with which the bird, when once fairly caught, is 

 strangled. ... A favourite plan is to wait for the birds in a place of concealment, as near as 



Photo ly Schroeder] 



[Zurich, 



A GROUP OF COCK OSTRICHES. 

 Note the conspicuous tail in these birds ; it is wanting in other members of the Ostrich Tribe. 



possible to the pools to which they come for water, and then, with a gun loaded with swan- 

 shot, to fire at their necks as they stoop to drink, when perhaps half a dozen are laid low 

 at once. . . . Another plan to which the Bushman often resorts is simpler still. Having 

 found an ostrich's nest, he removes all the eggs, and, ensconcing himself in the nest, quietly 

 awaits the return of the bird, which he shoots with a poisoned arrow before it has time to 

 recover from its surprise at finding him there instead of the eggs. ... In Senaar the Abu-R6f 

 bring it down by throwing a curved flat stick from 2| to 3 feet long, not unlike the Australian 

 boomerang, and made of tough acacia-wood or hard zizyphus." 



Mr. Arthur Glynn, of Leydenburg, gives a graphic description of an ostrich hunt, his quarry 

 being a troop of twenty birds "on sighting which," he tells us, "we immediately gave chase, 

 discovering directly afterwards that a single bull wildebeeste was among them. After a stiff 

 gallop," he says, " of half a mile, we got within seventy yards of the troop ; so reining in, we 

 both dismounted and fired, bringing down one ostrich and the wildebeeste bull. . . . We quickly 

 mounted and continued the pursuit, the ostriches never running for any distance in a direct 



