94 TRAVELS IN 
become exceedingly vicious. One of the EngliQi dragoons 
perfifted in mounting the female. She kicked and plunged, 
and laid herfelf down, but to no purpofe ; the man kept his 
feat J till taking a leap from the high bank of the river, flie 
threw him into the water ; but, holding faft by the bridle, (he 
had no fooner dragged him to the Ihore than, walking up 
quietly to him, ftie put her head down to his face and com- 
pletely bit off his ear. 
On many parts of the great deferts oftriches were feen 
fcowering the plains and waving their black and white plumes 
in the wind, a fignal to the Hottentots that their nefts were not 
far diftant, efpecially if they wheeled round the place from 
whence they ftarted up : when they have no neft they make 
off, immediately on being difturbed, with the wing-feathers 
clofe to the body. There is fomething in the economy of this 
animal different in general from that of the reft of the feathered 
race. It feems to be the link of union, in the great chain of 
nature, that connects the winged with the four-footed tribe. 
Its ftrong-jointed legs and cloven hoofs are well adapted for 
fpeed and for defence. The wings and all its feathers are 
infufiicient to raife it from the ground ; its camel-fhaped neck 
is covered with hair ; its voice is a kind of hollow mournful 
lowing, and it grazes on the plain with the qua-cha and the 
zebra. Among the very few polygamous birds that are found 
in a ftate of nature, the oftrich is one. The male, diftinguifhed 
by its glolTy black feathers from the dufky grey female, is 
generally feen with two or three, and frequently as many as 
five, of the latter. Thefe females lay their eggs in one neft, to 
the 
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