354 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



A full-grown wild ostrich is too wary to fall into the clutches 

 of a lion or leopard, save by accident, and it will master 

 any of the lesser carnivora; but the chicks are preyed 

 on by jackals and wild-cats, and of course by the larger 

 beasts of prey also; and the eggs are eagerly sought by 

 furred and feathered foes alike. Seemingly trustworthy 

 settlers have assured me that vultures break the tough 

 shells with stones. The cock and hen will try to draw their 

 more formidable foes away from the nest or the chicks by 

 lingering so near as to lure them into pursuit; and anything 

 up to the size of a hyena they will attack and drive away, 

 or even kill. The terrific downward stroke of an ostrich's 

 leg is as dangerous as the kick of a horse; the thump will 

 break a rib or backbone of any ordinary animal, and in 

 addition to the force of the blow itself the big nails may 

 make a ghastly rip. Both cock and hen lead about the 

 young brood and care for it. The two ostriches I shot 

 were swarming with active parasitic flies, a little like those 

 that were on the lions I shot in the Sotik. Later the por- 

 ters brought us in several ostrich chicks. They also brought 

 two genet kittens, which I tried to raise, but failed. They 

 were much like ordinary kittens, with larger ears, sharper 

 noses, and longer tails, and loved to perch on my shoulder 

 or sit on my lap while I stroked them. They made dear 

 little pets, and I was very sorry when they died. 



.On the day that I shot the cock ostrich I also shot a 

 giraffe. The country in which we were hunting marks 

 the southern limit of the "reticulated" giraffe, a form or 

 species entirely distinct from the giraffe we had already 

 obtained in the country south of Kenia. The southern 

 giraffe is blotched with dark on a light ground, whereas 

 this northern or north-eastern form is of a uniform dark 

 color on the back and sides, with a net-work or reticulation 

 of white lines placed in a large pattern on this dark back- 

 ground. The naturalists were very anxious to obtain a 

 specimen of this form from its southern limit of distribu- 

 tion, to see if there was any intergradation with the south- 



