OSTRICHES AND GIRAFFES 277 
I once watched a small herd of giraffes from the top of an 
‘earth boil,’ and from my elevated position got a splendid 
_ view of them. They were standing about 500 yards off, in 
fairly open bush of uniform dark green, which in the distance 
appeared to be pretty thick, and formed a good background 
to the numerous mimosa-trees with their table-tops of a much 
brighter green, on which the giraffes were feeding. Thestrongly 
marked colouring of these gigantic and stately creatures tower- 
- ing above the bush made them stand out in clear contrast to 
; their surroundings, as they slowly moved from tree to tree, 
_ gracefully twisting and turning their long necks to enable them 
_ to nibble the tender shoots of the mimosas in their usual deli- 
3 cate manner, giving me the impression that they might indeed 
_ be ‘monarchs of all they surveyed.’ 
: The ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes) of East and Central 
Africa is distinguished from the South African bird by its greater 
size, and by the cock bird having a blue neck. The feathers at 
any time are inferior and of little or no market value. The only 
two birds that I have ever seen with feathers that were at all 
good were killed by Mr. H. C. V. Hunter at Kilimanjaro in 
1887, when he had the good fortune to bag them shortly after 
they had moulted, and before they had rubbed and damaged 
their wing-feathers when dusting themselves. The ostrich is 
___ plentiful in many parts of the country, and goes about in small 
___troops, generally three or four together, though I have twice 
seen a troop Of thirteen, once in the Arusha-wa-Ghini country, 
and once at Machako’s. An adult cock ostrich, when standing 
_ upright, would measure quite 10 ft. to the crown of his head, 
_ the hen being rather smaller. How far this bird ranges to the 
_ south Iam unable to say, but to the north I have seen it near 
_ Lake Baringo. The Swahili and Arab traders, who now go up 
to Lake Rudolph, occasionally bring down small bunches of 
_ feathers, which, however, are probably of another species. 
| Throughout the Masai country and east of it to the’ coast 
_ ostriches are to be found in most of the plains and open bush 
| _ country, where they find plenty of green herbage to feed on, 
