A DESERT NINCOMPOOP 189 



they enter and wear among other game. Natives 

 fashion the body from long thin sticks covered with 

 skin or cloth, dyed with mud to the color of the male 

 bird. The legs of the man appear through the 

 bottom as the legs of the ostrich. The neck is simply 

 a real neck stuffed. 



The wearer of this strange disguise crouches 

 inside, holding the neck aloft with one hand. By 

 pretending to graze about, peck at its wings and 

 wander casually toward the waterhole, the man can 

 approach within a few yards of other animals without 

 creating the slightest commotion among them. It 

 is curious that the ostrich can detect the subterfuge 

 at a distance of more than a quarter of a mile, and at 

 once becomes panicky at sight of this strange travesty 

 on itself. 



I have found that the motion-picture camera 

 frightens an ostrich more than does a man, leading 

 me to believe that the creatures are more observant 

 than one would at first imagine. For the chief 

 difference and novelty in the camera is that it has 

 three legs, whereas in the ostrich's whole experience 

 all creatures have either four or two. 



