A DESERT NINCOMPOOP 175 



shoulders and coyly pushing up the edge of her 

 veil. 



The actual drinking consisted of two motions: 

 a shovel-like dip of the beak into the pool and an 

 upraising of neck and head while the water ran down 

 the long neck. This was repeated several times, with 

 a deal more of the comical hitching and gesturing 

 between mouthfuls. As I have said before, it is 

 this drinking act that has given rise to the tradition 

 that the ostrich hides its head in the sand when 

 pursued by man. 



The ostrich chiefly flourishes in Southern Africa. 

 I am told that Xenophon in his A nahasis mentions 

 having seen it in the southwestern desert tracts of 

 Asia. In East and South Africa the big birds inhabit 

 every waste extensive enough to give the arid soli- 

 tude an ostrich seems to love. 



The wild ostrich is disappearing rapidly on account 

 of man. To be siure, it is preyed upon by the carni- 

 vores, but not seriously as compared with the native 

 and settler who trap it for domestication. Before 

 i860 the ostrich was a wild bird. In 1862 half a 

 dozen chicks were caught in Cape Colony for the 

 purpose of experimenting with them as domestic 

 fowl. It was realized that the feathers were valu- 

 able; and the eggs were of such size as to promise 

 returns, provided they were as edible as reported. 

 The first hatching was in 1864. To the vast satis- 



