CHAPTER VI. 



OSTRICHES. 



An unwilling ride— First sight of an ostrich farm — Ridiculous mistakes 

 about ostriches— Decreased value of birds and feathers — Chicks- 

 Plumage of ostriches — A frightened ostrich — The plucking-box — 

 Sorting feathers — Voice of the ostrich — Savage birds — " Not afraid 

 of a dicky-bird ! " — Quelling an ostrich — Birds killed by men in 

 self-defence — Nests — An undutiful hen — Darby and Joan — A dis- 

 consolate widower^A hen-pecked husband — Too much zeal — 

 Jackie — Cooling the eggs — The white necked crow — Poisoning 

 jackals — Ostrich eggs in the kitchen— A quaint old writer on 

 ostriches — A suppliant bird — Nest destroyed by enraged ostrich — 

 An old bachelor. 



A FEW years before my marriage, having, as usual, fled 

 the terrors of the English winter, I was with a friend in 

 Egypt. And one morning this friend and I stood in the 

 court of the Hotel du Nil in Cairo ; preparing to mount 

 donkeys and start on a photographing expedition to 

 Heliopolis (the " On " of the Scriptures), and Matariyeh, 

 one of the supposed resting-places of the Holy Family 

 on their flight into Egypt. The fussy, bustling little 

 German manager of the hotel, with his usual paternal 

 care for his guests, was commending us, in a long and 

 voluble Arabic speech, to the special care and attention 

 of the donkey-boys ; with numerous minute instruc- 



