270 BEASTS AND MEN 
climate, the birds will thrive and multiply abundantly, with 
scarcely any care or observation. 
The natives of the Sudan and of Somaliland are 
thoroughly acquainted with the art of hatching out the eggs 
of wild ostriches. This they do by a sort of natural system 
of incubation, in place of the artificial system prevailing 
among Europeans. They make a shallow hollow in the 
ground, and after having collected the eggs, they place them 
in this hollow, taking care that they do not come into con- 
tact with one another. The intervening spaces are then 
filled up with loose sand or with doura, so that the eggs are 
entirely covered up. As shelter from the fierce rays of the 
sun, a few branches are thrown together over the hollow. 
From time to time the eggs are turned round, so that they 
are warmed equally on every side. By this method several 
of my travellers, and especially Menges, have hatched out 
eggs inthe Sudan. The young have usually thriven well, 
and in most cases have been successfully transported to 
Europe. 
Some years ago a number of ostrich eggs were brought 
to a friend of mine, who was living in Somaliland. He 
happened to be busy at the time, and, putting them into 
his desk, went away and forgot all about them. About 
a fortnight later he had occasion to go again to his desk, 
but, on opening it, he started back in terror, crying out 
for some one to bring him a stick, for that there was a snake 
in his desk and he wanted to kill it. A stick was brought, 
and the desk again very cautiously opened; upon which 
there emerged instead of the terrible reptile, which he had 
anticipated, the head and neck of an ostrich chick just escaped 
from its egg-shell. Nothing more need be said to show how 
little care or trouble is needed to hatch out these animals in 
suitable climates. In such countries the natives give them 
for food large quantities of meat and also some bone. They 
feed on green vegetable food as well; and in Somaliland in 
particular upon a creeping plant called armo. 
