4 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



1904 the amount had risen to 470,381 lb., valued at 

 1,058,988. In these thirty years, consequent on the 

 increasing supply, ostrich feathers had sunk from 

 5 us. 7d. to 2 55. per lb. In east Africa, too, the 

 industry is progressing well, and the quality of the birds 

 is good. The ostrich, therefore, may be fairly considered 

 to have taken his place among the useful domestic 

 servants of man. 



Wild birds at present exist (in south Africa) in the 

 north-eastern Transvaal, southern Rhodesia, and the 

 southern part of Portuguese East Africa, besides Bechu- 



A A I ** t' ^ '- 



analand and fiaBii-South^West Africa. There are large 

 numbers in the Transvaal Game Reserves, from the 

 I Crocodile RiverTto the Limpopo, a distance of some three 

 hundred miles, principally in the flats at the base of the 

 'Lebombo Hills.') Such experiments as have been under- 

 taken with wild birds in the Transvaal have not, however, 

 so far been very successful, the quality of the feathers 

 of the bush-bird being inferior to the Cape variety. 



During the mating season ostriches are generally 

 seen in pairs, a cock and a hen bird ; less frequently 

 several hens accompany one cock. The cock and the 

 hen together excavate the nest, which is merely a large 

 circular hollow scraped in the bare ground, often far 

 from any trees or other shade. In this the eggs, about 

 twenty in number, are laid. Those of the southern 

 ostrich are of a very light straw colour, pitted with little 

 depressions, whilst in the east African and Somaliland 

 forms the depressions are of darkish colour, and in the 

 northern type are altogether absent. The hen bird 

 sits on the eggs by day and the cock relieves her at night, 

 so that the eggs are never left unguarded during incu- 

 bation. The birds sit with their necks extended straight 

 along the ground, and the grey feathers of the hen by 



