THE OOLOCilST. 



171 



with that peculiar swift, swimming move- 

 ment of theirs. So fleet are they of foot 

 that it is claimed that no horse can outrun 

 them; and so untamable are they that 

 even the dog raised with them and hanging 

 about their camp every hour of the day 

 stirs a panic whenever he dashes into their 

 midst between their redwood bars. 



" You ought to have seen my attempts 

 to introduce a young Plymouth Rock cock 

 into their camp," the, herder says, prodding 

 into the inclosure with the forked stick, 

 and bringing out more feathers. ' ' I 

 thought it would be a tine thing to get them 

 wonted to each other, and I gave them a 

 splendid young fellow for company. But 

 he drove every ostrich so the wall. No 

 sooner did they venture down to get a 

 morsel of food than he went at them spur 

 aud bill, and they had to beat a retreat. 

 Their big eyes tempted him, particularly; 

 and he pecked at them until I was obliged 

 to take him away by sheer force and shut 

 him up elsewhere. ' ' 



' ' You want to know what this forked 

 stick is for? Well, see here. ' ' He gave it 

 a sudden twist, and lo! it laid hold of the 

 long, featherless neck of an ostrich and 

 grasped it as if in a vice. ' ' I never go 

 among them without that ; it is not safe to 

 go into an enemy's camp unarmed.'' 



No one eats ostrich flesh nowadays. It is 

 tough, strong and unpalatable; although 

 some Indian tribes have been known to be 

 fond of it. But we all delight to wear their 

 feathers. And when the milliners' bills 

 come in this fall we shall understand why 

 those lovely thirty-inch, pure white natural 

 plumes are so much higher priced than the 

 cluster of nodding bright-hued tips that 

 have been dipped in dyes. Only of the 

 pure whites can we be sure that they are 

 perfectly au naturel — even the blacks must 

 be steeped in color sometimes to brighten 

 up their jetty appearance. Yet the pretty 

 pale grays, and the popular seal browns are 

 almost always sold in the shades that they 

 are grown. 



As we came home by brisk motor between 

 the orange rows, a gay party of eastern 

 tourist were on board waving some long 

 fan -palms about, which an accomodating 

 gardener had cut for them in the plaza. 

 We looked at them and thought how neat 

 those palms would be on our white wall. 

 Then we waved our feathers, They looked 

 at us, and no doubt they thought how neat 

 those feathers would be on their traveling 

 hats. And so, waving our plams and 

 feathers, we all came home highly pleased 

 with this land of tropical birds and trees. 

 —Ex. 



Estelle Thompson. 



An Afternoon's Collecting- Trip. 



I Think no collecting affords more real, 

 solid enjoyment than searching among the 

 reeds and rushes for the nests of water 

 birds. My outfit consists of a large satchel, 

 to pack the eggs in, and a fish basket divid- 

 ed off into two departments, one for lar^e 

 and the other for small eggs. This I use- 

 when obliged to leave the boat. I used to 

 wear high rubber boots, but the collector 

 cannot imagine, unless he has had some 

 experience, how very uncomfortable it is to 

 step upon a nice looking piece of grass, 

 which proves to be a bog-mire, precipitating 

 you, waist deep, into slimy water, out of 

 which you crawl, leaving your boots behind 

 you ; or suddenly sitting down, to find upon 

 rising that your boots are full of water a 

 portion of which you carry about during 

 the day. So I have laid them aside for 

 fall shooting when the water is low and 

 the inland marshes nearly dry. 



On the afternoon of the 26 day of May, 

 1887 two friends and myself started for a 

 marsh a quarter of a mile inland, into 

 which I had been led the fall before, while 

 stalking blue jays. A four mile walk up a 

 railroad brought us to it. It is a quarter 

 of a mile long, 30ft. wide and appears to 

 have been, at some remote period, a river 

 bed, but is now covered with reeds and 

 rushes. Surrounding it is a dense woods 

 of tamarack, beech and other trees, is in- 

 fested by millions of mosquitoes, and 

 inhabited by, but few birds except the blue 

 jay and owl. We had not proceeded far 

 when we struck a colony of red-winged 

 blackbirds. The males arose, met us half 

 way and hovering over our heads, uttered 

 plaintive cries. Soon the females began to 

 leave their nests, perch upon the bushes 

 and join voice with the mates. The major- 

 ity of the nests were placed in the usual 

 manner among the dried reeds, but many 

 were in the young willows and bushes. As 

 the blackbird is a very common breeder 

 here we did not disturb their nests. "M ' " 

 found the next nest by flushing the bird (A 

 king rail) from it. It was placed in a wild 

 rose bush and contained 9 eggs. This fin 



