150 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



has died in good condition has a large quantity of 

 beautiful, soft, bright yellow fat. This, being most 

 useful, is always carefully put away in jars ; and there 

 is no fat equal to it for guns, saddles, harness, boots, etc. 

 Besides waltzino: and fisrhting, there are endless other 



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ways in which ostriches — always ingenious in devising 

 plans for their own destruction — manage to get their 

 legs broken, and their throats consequently cut ; but 

 the favourite form of felo-de-se is collision with the 

 wire fences. These seem to have some magnetic attrac- 

 tion for the vogels, as the Dutch call them — the word, 

 appropriately enough, too, being pronounced " fools." 



" Another bird killed in the wires ! " How familiar 

 any one living on an ostrich farm becomes with these 

 words of woe ! Anything, or nothing — the latter in- 

 deed more frequently — suffices either to frighten or 

 embolden an ostrich into flinging himself headlong into 

 the nearest fence. The appearance of a strange dog, 

 for instance — and in spite of strict orders the Kaffirs 

 always will bring dogs about the place — is quite certain, 

 whatever may be the view taken of it by the ostrich, 

 to lead but to one result. Say the dog is coming along 

 on the opposite side of the fence. An imbecile bold- 

 ness and pugnacity straightway inspire the ostrich ; he 

 has no eyes for anything but the dog, and, leaving the 

 fence entirely out of his calculations, he makes a mad, 

 blind charge, which lands him well in the wires ; and 

 if he is extricated from the latter with unbroken legs, 

 his owner may be congratulated on a very unusual 

 stroke of luck. If, on the other hand, the dog and bird 



