278 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



whether grass or the leaves of various bushes. At Merereni, 

 on the coast, in 1886, where I bagged three, two cocks and a 

 hen, the hen bird was feeding on the young shoots of a small - 

 leaved mangrove bush by the side of a creek. Each of these 

 birds when cut open was found to have about 3 Ibs. weight of 

 pebbles inside its gizzard. 



Ostriches are even more difficult to stalk than giraffes, as 

 they are mostly found out in the open, and unless the sports- 

 man can get a bush sufficiently tall to prevent their seeing him 

 over it, or can take advantage of the dry bed of a watercourse, 

 should there be one near, it is almost hopeless to try to stalk 

 them. They are, however, not difficult to drive, and I have 

 twice succeeded in circumventing them in this way, once with 

 Sir Robert Harvey, and another time when alone. Once I 

 tried to approach a troop of five by using my imitation ostrich, 

 the Bushman's stratagem (with which I was so successful 

 with G. Grantii), but failed so hopelessly the birds at 

 once detecting the fraud and never allowing me to get 

 within 500 yards of them that I never tried it again. The 

 best day I ever had with these birds was when I came across 

 three, which I saw from a long way off, feeding amongst some 

 small scattered bushes on a slope in undulating ground. By 

 taking advantage of the low ground on the other side of the 

 undulation, I succeeded, after a long and painful crawl, in 

 getting up to a bush near the top. Here I could see the long 

 neck and head of one of them over the brow, and was pleased 

 to notice that they had altered their position and were feeding in 

 my direction. Sitting quite still, I waited until they were within 

 seventy yards of me, and got two of them with a right and left 

 shot. The other one bolted down the slope of the hill away 

 from me and disappeared for a few seconds, but apparently lost 

 its head ; for on standing up I saw it coming back ; as it had 

 not seen me, I stooped down behind the bush, and when it 

 raced past about seventy or eighty yards off, with head held 

 back and wings extended, I knocked it over. 



