380 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



associating with the ostrich, desirous perhaps of benefiting by 

 the sharpness of his eye, which is capable of discerning danger 

 at the utmost verge of the horizon. But in spite of its 

 vigilance, misfortunes are already gathering round the troop, 

 for the Bedouin has spied them out, and encircles them with a 

 ring of his fleetest coursers. In vain the ostrich seeks to 

 escape. One rider drives him along to the next, the circle 

 gradually grows narrower and narrower, and, finally, the 

 exhausted bird sinks upon the ground, and receives the death- 

 blow with stoical resignation. 



To surprise the cautious seal the northern Eskimo puts on a 

 skin of the animal, and imitating its motions mixes among the 

 unsuspicious herd ; and, in South Africa, we find the Bushman 

 resort to a similar stratagem to outwit the ostrich. He forms a 

 kind of saddle-shaped cushion, and covers it over with feathers, 

 so as to resemble the bird. The head and neck of an ostrich 

 are stuffed, and a small rod introduced. Preparing for the 

 chase, he whitens his black legs with any substance he can 

 procure, places the saddle on his shoulders, takes the bottom 

 part of the neck in his right hand, and his bow and poisoned 

 arrows in his left. Under this mask he mimics the ostrich 

 to perfection, picks away at the verdure, turns his head as 

 if keeping a sharp look out, shakes his feathers, now walks, 

 and then trots, till he gets within bow-shot, and when the flock 

 runs, from one receiving an arrow, he runs too. Sometimes, 

 however, it happens that some wary old bird suspects the 

 cheat, and endeavours to get near the intruder, who then tries 

 to get out of 'the way, and to prevent the bird from catching 

 his scent, which would at once break the spell. 



The ostrich generally passes for a very stupid animal, yet to 

 protect its young it has recourse to the same stratagems which 

 we admire in the plover, the oyster-catcher,* and several other 

 strand-birds. Thus Professor Thunberg relates that riding 

 past a place where a hen-ostrich sat on her nest, the bird 

 sprang up and pursued him, in order to draw off his attention 

 from her young ones or her eggs. Every time the traveller 

 turned his horse toward her, she retreated ten or twelve paces, 

 but as soon as he rode on, pursued him again. 



* ' The Sea and its Living Wonders,' p. 119. 



