136 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



dead ostrich. A post-mortem examination of chicks 

 which have died of this disease shows the liver to be 

 of the bright colour of orange-peel. 



Internal parasites also destroy a good many chicks ; 

 and altogether the little lives are precarious, and every 

 troop of young birds successfully reared in the Karroo 

 is a triumph. 



For the first two or three months the chicks are 

 herded near the house by boys, whose duty it is to 

 keep them well supplied with prickly pear leaves and 

 other green food, cut up small. This work ought to 

 take up the greater part of the young herd's time ; 

 but — small boys beiag no more satisfactory as servants 

 in the Karroo than they are anywhere else — we found 

 it necessary to keep a very strict watch ; and often 

 during the day, however busy I might be, I would 

 " make time " to run down to the shady spot which 

 was the chicks' place of encampment — generally to 

 find the infants hungry, and their useless nurse either 

 asleep or plunged in some absorbing business of his 

 own with a knife and a piece of wood. Sometimes, 

 too, the boys, getting impatient with the chicks, were 

 rough and cruel ; one budding criminal especially was 

 several times caught making footballs of his innocent 

 charges, kicking them up several feet into the air. 



And on a farm where T was once staying, a 



juvenile black fiend was found to have deliberately 

 broken the legs of some twenty chicks under his care ; 

 and, when asked the reason of his conduct, said, " They 

 run about, give me too much trouble." 



