134 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



the sitting, were either left orphaned by accident, or, 

 as in the case of Jackie, deserted in consequence of 

 floods. Some poor old Hottentot woman would be 

 carefully tucked up, in company with the eggs, under 

 numerous blankets, where she would remain bed- 

 ridden until she had hatched out the last chick. Some- 

 times, even, the stout, lethargic Dutch vrouw herself, to 

 whose indolent nature the task was doubtless congenial 

 enough, would perform the part of foster-mother. 



When, either by natural or artificial means, the 

 little ostriches are safely brought into the world, the 

 farmer's next anxiety is to keep them there. They do 

 well enough on the coast ; but in the Karroo they are 

 most difficult to rear, and our experience with them 

 has been sad and disheartening. Numbers of them die, 

 when about a month or five weeks old, from an epi- 

 demic which comes and goes in the strangest manner. 

 During a whole season, for instance, one farmer will 

 lose nearly every chick ; while brood after brood will 

 be successfully reared by another at no very great 

 distance. Next year, perhaps, it is the turn of the 

 latter to be the sufferer ; and vice versa. Our unlucky 

 year had a most promising beginning, unusually good 

 rains having filled the country with nests ; yet at the 

 end of the season all we had to show of the rising 

 generation of ostriches was a poor little troop of fifteen 

 lanky, ragged-looking creatures, which through some 

 rare toughness of constitution had survived the perils 

 of infancy over two hundred having succumbed. 



The disappointment of losing the chicks is much in- 



