Chap. VII. THE OSTEICH. 155 



asserted that ostriches are polygamous, though they often appear 

 to be so. When caught they are easily tamed, but are of no use 

 in their domesticated state. 



The egg is possessed of very great vital power. One kept in a 

 room during more than three months, in a temperature about 

 60°, when broken was found to have a partially developed live 

 chick in it. The Bushmen carefully avoid touching the eggs, or 

 leaving marks of human feet near them, when they find a nest. 

 They go up the wind to the spot, and with a long stick remove 

 some of them occasionally, and, by preventing any suspicion, 

 keep the hen laying on for months, as we do with fowls. The 

 eggs have a strong disagreeable flavour, which only the keen 

 appetite of the Desert can reconcile one to. The Hottentots use 

 their trousers to carry home the twenty or twenty-five eggs 

 usually found in a nest ; and it has happened that an English- 

 man, intending to imitate this knowing dodge, comes to the 

 waggons with blistered legs, and, after great toil, finds all the 

 eggs uneatable, from having been some time sat upon. Our 

 countrymen invariably do best when they continue to think, 

 speak, and act in their own proper character. 



The food of the ostrich consists of pods and seeds of different 

 kinds of leguminous plants, with leaves of various plants ; and, as 

 these are often hard and dry, he picks up a great quantity of 

 pebbles, many of which are as large as marbles. He picks up 

 also some small bulbs, and occasionally a wild melon to afford 

 moisture, for one was found with a melon which had choked him 

 by sticking in his throat. It requires the utmost address of the 

 Bushmen, crawling for miles on their stomachs, to stalk them 

 successfully ; yet the quantity of feathers collected annually 

 shows that the numbers slain must be considerable, as each bird 

 has only a few in the wings and tail. The male bird is of a jet 

 black glossy colour, with the single exception of the white 

 feathers, which are objects of trade. Nothing can be finer than 

 the adaptation of these flossy feathers for the climate of the 

 Kalahari, where these birds abound; for they afford a perfect 

 shade to the body, with free ventilation beneath them. The hen 

 ostrich is of a dark brownish-grey colour, and so are the half- 

 grown cocks. 



