THE OSTRICH 7 



the bird in the ordinary manner, the chita runs him 

 down after crawling up as near as possible before making 

 its dash, while the packs of hunting dogs are so well 

 aware of the ostrich's weakness that they always run 

 the diameter of the circle which he is describing. The 

 two latter species of carnivora, however, prefer, when 

 possible, the hens and half-grown birds as quarry. 

 During the incubation period, the eggs are well guarded 

 against the onslaughts of the birds and lesser beasts of 

 prey ; but before their tally is complete they are often 

 left unprotected, and then hysenas, jackals, bush-pigs, 

 and the like often wreak wholesale destruction. If, on 

 her return, she finds that the nest has been tampered 

 with, the hen is said to desert it and lay a fresh clutch 

 elsewhere, previously breaking up the remainder of the 

 eggs herself. 



There are various stories current in some parts of 

 Africa to the effect that vultures or other birds of prey 

 will carry up stones into the air and drop them on to 

 ostrich nests in order to break the eggs therein. The 

 best rule when listening to an improbable story is to 

 keep a perfectly open mind about it until an opportunity 

 of personally testing its truth arrives. I think it was the 

 "roc" in the "Arabian Nights" that used to carry 

 up big stones and drop them on to persons and things 

 it did not like ; but I never saw any bird in real life do 

 such a thing. However, many birds of prey do carry 

 up into the air and drop tortoises, in order to break their 

 shells, and it is quite possible they might do the same 

 thing with ostrich eggs, though I should imagine most 

 of them would have no difficulty in breaking them with 

 their beaks without going to the considerable frouble 

 of flying away with them. 



The call of the male ostrich is a loud booming some- 



