two Arabs pricked their steeds into a full
gallop, one to the right and one to the left, and
tried, by making a circuit, to get ahead of him.
Sidi did not like the idea of being outdone by
the other Arabs, so he made a dash at the game
on his own account. His horse had a little
spirit left, and a few long hounds brought him
alongside. The bird saw that he was outrun
and outwitted. With a little stick, such as we
all carried for this especial purpose, Sidi tapped
him on the neck, turned him, and drove him
back to me like a tame creature. Our two
companions now rejoined us, crying out,
"Sahait! salhait! Allah yatick es-saha!" which
means, " Well done! well done! God gives you
strength!"—Arab equivalent for " Hurrah!
hurrah! go it again, old boy!"

The ostrich was, of course, a Mussulman, and
was convinced that it was in vain to strive
against his fate. One by one we came up
with our beaten companions; and we then
surrounded our bird, caught him, and cut
his throat, with the pious words, " Bism-Illah
Akhbar" (in the name of the great God). It
would have been simpler to tap him on the head
and strangle him, for then there would have been
no fear of damaging the feathers with the blood.
But such a death is not in accordance with the
Moslem creed concerning holy and unholy food;
and of an animal so slaughtered, the flesh could
not have been eaten.

Ladies, I trust, are satisfied with the amount
of trouble taken to get for them their court
plumes. But it is a pity that each feather
which costs them a guinea scarcely brings a
shilling to the Arab sportsman.

When we had skinned our bird and cut off
the best joints, we rode leisurely back to
Derej, which we reached a little after sunset,
pretty well knocked up. Heartily glad was I,
after a good supper of broiled leg of ostrich—
which is a meat, not choice but welcome to the
hungry—to lie on the soft sand and take a nap
that lasted until sunrise the next morning.

I passed the following day with my fellow-
sportsmen, and learned much about the habits
of the ostrich, and the various ways of taking
it. Running it down in the manner just
related is considered the best way, though the
most tedious, for it involves least chance of
injuring the feathers. The commonest plan,
however, is to lay snares of rope in places which
the birds frequent. Another way is to dig
a hole in the earth near a bush, or some slight
cover, in a valley to which the ostriches come
to graze. One of the hunters, armed with his
long gun, hides in the hole, and his companions
having strewed brushwood over him, efface their
footmarks from the sand. The pitman remains,
with only the muzzle of the gun visible outside
his hiding-place, until an ostrich passes: when,
if the bird be near enough, he is an easy prey.

Ostriches pair about the beginning of March,
and the female begins laying her eggs towards
the end of April. She generally puts a score or
two dozen in her nest, which is but a shallow
basin scraped out of the sand. She arranges
the eggs in a triangle, with the point in front of
her when she is sitting. Two or three of them,
therefore, do not get sufficiently warmed by her
body, and these unhatched eggs she breaks to
provide food for the young birds during the first
few days after they have left their shells. The
young birds, hatched in six weeks, take three
years to attain their full size; they appear to live
much with their parents, and even make their
nests near theirs. Thus, sometimes there will
be found the nests of a whole family together,
grandfather and grandmother in the middle, and
the younger generations round about. Does
the patriarch in the middle receive from the
young ostriches upon the outskirts of such a
colony the reverence to which he may suppose
himself entitled? In the first year of her breeding,
the female lays smaller eggs than afterwards;
but the birds hatched from them
grow to the usual size. Cock and hen sit
on the eggs alternately: one sitting whilst the
other goes for food; never, in the Sahara, do
they leave their eggs to be hatched by the sun.

The male is very attentive when he begins
his courtship, and follows the lady about wherever
she goes. After marriage, however, his
conduct undergoes a change. If, while sitting,
he smells danger, he immediately leaves the
eggs, fetches his wife, and makes her take his
place. He then watches at a distance, and if
after a long delay he satisfies himself that all is
safe, he allows his mate to return to her meal,
and resumes his place over the eggs. The
Arabs, when they find a nest near any convenient
bush or other shelter, make a pit as before
described. The birds, on their approach, take
flight. The men having worked as fast as
possible, leave one of their number with his gun in
the pit, and disappear. When the birds come
again to reconnoitre the ground, if they think
mutters satisfactory, the hen. is sent to sit, and
she often remains sitting for twelve hours. The
sportsman does not shoot her, as his aim is to
bring down the male. He waits, therefore, till
she is relieved in her duties by the bird he
wants. The best shot among the Arabs is
always chosen for pitman. When he kills the
bird, he receives double share of the profits;
when he misses the bird, he must pay a fine and
lose his office. After the male is killed, the
female will frequently come to look for him, and
to visit the eggs, when she also may be taken.
But were the female bird shot first, the male would
never trouble himself any more about the eggs,
but would go from the spot, probably for ever.

Ostriches are not particular in the selection
of their food. They live generally on grass,
seeds, and even insects; but they have, when
domesticated, a great partiality for halfpence,
steel pens, nails, keys, spoons, snuff-boxes,
and so forth. Whether they can digest these
titbits, I do not know, but I have heard many
tales of ostriches being found with such things
half-digested in their stomachs. Certainly they
swallow them with great avidity, and must
find it in some way to their advantage so to do.
They are a sort of bird easily tamed, and,