REMINISCENCES FROM THE MELBOURNE ZOO. 
147 
scarcely speak for laughing. It was too funny to see a man adopt the 
ostriches’ tactics to escape threatening danger from an ostrich! 
At last he cried: 
“Hallo, old man; taking a leaf out of the ostriches’ book?” 
The bag moved cautiously. A head appeared. 
“Is it gone?” 
“Yes; come up! I’ve heard that ostriches hide their heads from 
men in the belief that their bodies could not be seen, but this is the first 
time I’ve known a man to hide like that from an ostrich!” 
Seeing that the man was really too frightened to move, he got down 
to him, and found that the alarm had brought on so acute an attack of 
rheumatism that he was physically incapable of rising even if he could 
have thrown off the shock. Mr. Wilkie had just begun to help the poor 
plumber up, when a voice cried from beyond the fence: 
“Hallo, old man, frightened of a bird?” 
This voice belonged to a man who was working at the water main 
outside, who, when he saw what was going forward, at once “downed 
tools” and prepared to vault the fence. He was as big as the plumber 
v/as little, and as he began to “shoo!” the ostrich bravely, Mr. Wilkie 
interfered. 
“Now; leave that bird alone. He’s pretty savage already, and it 
will do no good to anybody if he gets worse,” 
The man laughed aloud. 
“Pooh!” he cried, “Who’s frightened of that Brahmaputra?” 
Saying this he raised his hands again and “shoo’d” the bird once 
more. Mr. Wilkie got the crippled plumber just to the gate when he 
heard a cry of terror behind him, and there was the courageous chal- 
lenger of the “Brahmaputra” flying for his life before the swift-footed 
and powerful bird. Instead of rushing towards the gate, and thus to 
safety, the panic-stricken man raced for the ostrich house in the centre 
of the paddock, and there in a moment he was playing the game of 
“Here we go round the mulberry bush,” with the bird. Round and 
round they went, but it was the ostrich that showed the possession of 
sense and initiative. Instead of blindly following the man in the unending 
game, he presently stopped and went in the other direction. Thus he 
came fairly upon the fugitive rushing towards him. The man tried 
to turn, but was not quick enough to get away. The ostrich raised first 
one powerful claw, and then another, and caught his clothes at the back 
of the neck with a violence that would unquestionably have killed him 
had the blows been placed in the middle of his back. With one strong 
movement, he drew both feet downwards, and ripped his victim’s clothes 
