We Had Then Sixty Miles Of Country In Front
Without Water, And Very Distressing For The Oxen, As It Is Generally
Deep Soft Sand.
There is one sucking-place, around which were congregated
great numbers of Bushwomen with their egg-shells and reeds.
Mathuluane now contained no water, and Motlatsa only a small supply,
so we sent the oxen across the country to the deep well Nkauane,
and half were lost on the way.
When found at last they had been
five whole days without water. Very large numbers of elands
were met with as usual, though they seldom can get a sip of drink.
Many of the plains here have large expanses of grass without trees,
but you seldom see a treeless horizon. The ostrich is generally seen
quietly feeding on some spot where no one can approach him
without being detected by his wary eye. As the wagon moves along
far to the windward he thinks it is intending to circumvent him,
so he rushes up a mile or so from the leeward, and so near to the front oxen
that one sometimes gets a shot at the silly bird. When he begins to run
all the game in sight follow his example. I have seen this folly
taken advantage of when he was feeding quietly in a valley open at both ends.
A number of men would commence running, as if to cut off his retreat
from the end through which the wind came; and although he had
the whole country hundreds of miles before him by going to the other end,
on he madly rushed to get past the men, and so was speared. He never swerves
from the course he once adopts, but only increases his speed.
When the ostrich is feeding his pace is from twenty to twenty-two inches;
when walking, but not feeding, it is twenty-six inches;
and when terrified, as in the case noticed, it is from eleven and a half
to thirteen and even fourteen feet in length. Only in one case
was I at all satisfied of being able to count the rate of speed
by a stop-watch, and, if I am not mistaken, there were thirty in ten seconds;
generally one's eye can no more follow the legs than it can
the spokes of a carriage-wheel in rapid motion. If we take the above number,
and twelve feet stride as the average pace, we have a speed
of twenty-six miles an hour. It can not be very much above that,
and is therefore slower than a railway locomotive. They are sometimes shot
by the horseman making a cross cut to their undeviating course,
but few Englishmen ever succeed in killing them.
The ostrich begins to lay her eggs before she has fixed on a spot for a nest,
which is only a hollow a few inches deep in the sand, and about a yard
in diameter. Solitary eggs, named by the Bechuanas "lesetla", are thus found
lying forsaken all over the country, and become a prey to the jackal.
She seems averse to risking a spot for a nest, and often lays her eggs
in that of another ostrich, so that as many as forty-five have been found
in one nest. Some eggs contain small concretions of the matter
which forms the shell, as occurs also in the egg of the common fowl:
this has given rise to the idea of stones in the eggs. Both male and female
assist in the incubations; but the numbers of females being always greatest,
it is probable that cases occur in which the females have the entire charge.
Several eggs lie out of the nest, and are thought to be intended
as food for the first of the newly-hatched brood till the rest come out
and enable the whole to start in quest of food. I have several times seen
newly-hatched young in charge of the cock, who made a very good attempt
at appearing lame in the plover fashion, in order to draw off
the attention of pursuers. The young squat down and remain immovable
when too small to run far, but attain a wonderful degree of speed
when about the size of common fowls. It can not be 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 Deg.,
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 flavor,
which only the keen appetite of the Desert can reconcile one to.
The Hottentots use their trowsers to carry home the twenty or twenty-five eggs
usually found in a nest; and it has happened that an Englishman,
intending to imitate this knowing dodge, comes to the wagons
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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 69 of 295
Words from 70592 to 71595
of 306638
