146 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



Unfortunately, branding is not always the safe- 

 guard against theft which it is intended to be ; for 

 theie are quite as many dishonest people in the Cape 

 Colony as elsewhere (if not rather more), and it is no 

 uncommon trick to obliterate the brand of a bird which 

 has come astray by applying over it a much larger one 

 — a " frying-pan " brand, as one hears it occasionally 

 called by victims. 



As regards the stupidity of ostriches, although indeed 

 they are falsely accused on one point ; that of hiding 

 their small heads in the sand and imagining therefore 

 that their large bodies are quite invisible to the foe, 

 they do many other things quite as foolish, and — to 

 revert again to the Book of Job — their character could 

 not possibly have been more perfectly summed up than 

 it is in the words : " Because God hath deprived her of 

 wisdom, neither hath He imparted to her understand- 

 ing." And, indeed, no one looking at the ostrich's 

 ridiculous little head, so flat immediately above the 

 eyes as to leave no room for any brain, can wonder 

 that he is an imbecile ; possessing even less intelligence 

 than a common fowl, and not recognizing the man who 

 has fed him every day for years, if the latter comes to 

 the camp in a coat or hat to which he is unaccustomed. 



A friend of T 's was attacked and knocked down 



by one of his own ostriches, an old bird which had been 

 constantly fed by him, but which, on seeing him for 

 the first time in a black hat, took him for a stranger. 



Fortunately T was with him, and, having brought 



a tackey — in spite of assurances that none would be 

 needed — came promptly to the rescue. 



