EXPERIENCES IN BRITISH EAST AFRICA. yij 
Farmer averages £5 or £6 per bird per clip, he is well satisfied ; 
a good two-year-old cock bird is worth at least £27 in 
British East Africa. I believe the record price for an 
Ostrich is £1000, a man named Evans having sold a cock 
bird for this enormous price in South Africa. 
1 he Ostiichs favourite food is a small species of Lucerne 
with a little blue flower, and at the farm where I stayed large 
areas of ground were being put under Lucerne, and paddocks 
and enclosures made, as by far the best feathers are yielded 
by Lucerne fed birds. Of course it is a great question whether 
much money can be made out of Ostrich farming in East 
Atiica , there is no doubt that if it is to be made to pay it 
must be persevered with for some years before a large profit 
can be made. 
On the little hill at 1 heki lived a small herd of a rare and 
local Antelope called Chandler’s Reed-buck, a very pretty 
little animal which when we first came to the place were so 
tame and unused to the sight of a white man that they allowed 
one to approach within a few yards before they dashed off 
with a shrill whistle. On the long grass behind our tents 
I found several specimens of a small rare Chameleon with an 
orange-throat, and an enormous Python, fourteen feet long, 
was shot close to the Ostrich farm. Snakes were rather 
plentiful here, especially a dull green Snake which was fond 
of water, and a long black one which was very poisonous ; 
my friend had a narrow escape from a Snake one night ; he 
was getting into bed in his tent, when he looked down and 
saw within an inch of his naked foot a very deadly little Adder 
lying coiled up, one half step more and he would have trodden 
on it, and its bite is fatal in less than twenty minutes. 
Large herds of Zebras, Wilderbeestes and Hartebeestes were 
constantly passing in front of our camp, and Gazelles would 
come and stare at us, while at nights one constantly heard 
Hyaenas, shrieking and howling outside our tents, and often, 
too, the marvellous resounding roar of a Lion, which is a most 
awe-inspiring noise and not conducive to sleep. One day 
1 caught alive a beautiful little Mongoose, about the size of 
a Rat and which has since become the most charming pet ; 
