ON THE OSTRICHES. 223 
This they most assuredly will do if left undisturbed 
to themselves. The process of hatching is performed by 
the male and female sitting alternately, one keeping a 
vigilant look out as sentry as well as procuring food 
The only reason that I can assign for the use of 
mcubators in the Eastern Province Districts at the 
Cape, is from the fact of the almost universal system 
adopted by the Dutch Boers and the natives, of robbing 
every nest that they find of all the eggs it contains, 
which are generally from eighteen to twenty-four in 
number. These are brought by the farmers in their 
waggons, when they come to the Nacht Maal or 
Sacramental Services, to such towns or villages as can 
boast of a Dutch Church, when they exchange them 
m the stores for trifling necessaries. Their seUing 
value m Africa is about sixpence each, and they find 
their way into the other parts of the colony amongst 
the farmers, who would then resort to artificial means 
of hatching them, and of so obtaining a troop of birds 
This system of robbing the nests will rapidly cause 
them to be almost exterminated, and will prove a 
grievous loss to the colony, which it can ill afford 
_ " Ostrich farming will eventually prove remunerative 
m this country, and become more general as the birds 
increase iu number. They should have a good open 
country, free from the shade of timber, and if the soil 
be sandy, „r has sandy patches about it, so much the 
better, as it will be the more natural to them, and in 
those sandy places they will generally deposit their 
eggs Before concluding, I may state that I examined 
some feathers from the Australian birds that were offered 
for sale by Messrs. Gemmell, Tuckett, and Co some 
time ago, on account of the Acclimatisation Society 
