DRIVING OSTRICHES IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 88, 30 January 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

DRIVING OSTRICHES IN SOUTH AFRICA.

PoTcuiu'sTKOOM, or Moori River D:>rp, was the second seat of Government of the Transvaal, the first having Origstadt, which, ueiug iu the low bush county, was first decimated by fever and then deserted ; from Potchefstrooin the seat of Government was removed to Pretoria. It was an out-of-the-way place, and was seldom visited by English, except by hunters and traders on their way to the Zambesi. Lake N'gami, and tho Matabele and Bamanwato countries, and in the colonies it was very rare to come across anyone who had been there. Ou our way back IVO purchased at a farm four young ostriches, a few months old, auc 1 not quite half grown. Wo had considerable difficulty in getting them off the farm. A little further wo bought three more, a little older and three-parts grown, and these gave us proper work to get them away. For a whole day we wore chasing thorn all over the country on foot, for we had brought no horses, not anticipating this kind of work; but they always returned to tho house, and towards evening we gave it up. In the morning, at daybreak, wo spanned or hobbled them with silk handkerchiefs, and in tltis way managed to get them six or seven miles from the farm. The next day we removed the handkerchiefs, us they were injuring the birds' legs, and for a little while they went along quietly uutil they sighted a troop of wildebeestes, when they stretched out their necks and were off at their best pace to join them. Wc then each seized one of tho two waggonwhips we had, and started after them. If the birds had been real wild onos and full grown wo might as well havo started after an express train, for I never sat tho horso that could ruu down a full-grown ostriob in a fair course : but they were only three-parts grown, and had been dome-ticated on a farm sinco they came out of tho egg, and they were really more indulging in gairbols than making a serious attempt to join the wildebeestes. Consequently, we succcded in driving them back : but the performance was repeated oO times during the day, and we had not a moment's rest the whole day. It was quite dark when we at leugth arrived at the river, and lint for tho assistance of the others, who catre to our aid, we should never have got them through. At camp wo threw ourselves exhausted on the ground, acid both declared that it was by far the hardest day's work wo had ever done in our lives. The distance we had run after those wretched birds was certainly over i>o miles, and for the greater part of the distance we were cracking heavy wag-gon-whips as well. Those ostriches were afterwards a source of endless trouble to us. They grow rapidly, and deve'oped great kicking powers, until they became sometimes positively dangerous, the dogs and the Kaffirs coming in for most of their attention s . Their apoctite was insatiable. We used to make large quantities of biltong, or sun dried meat, and there were usually dozens of strips of it haugiu<j on beams slung from the waggon, and these wore always objects of attention on tho part of the ostriches. It was most amusing to see one trying to swallow a strip a yard long and two inches thick, just as a chicken struggles with a worm that is a little too big for it. Once we had to drag a huge strip out of one of the birds' throats to save it from choking. But it was the culinary department that interested 'hem most. They would always attack the Kaffirs bringing the viands from the " kitchen " to the tent, and sometimes were so pertinacious that the boy would get frightened and throw the dish away and bolt, and we would lose the best part of our dinner. They would even come into the tent and snatch things off the table, and we would take it out of them by smothering a dainty morsel with salt and cayenne pepper ; but after awhile they seemed to flourish on it. One day, however, we got the laugh on our side. Dinner was preparing, and one of the birds was investigating the pots round the fire. A great pot of huge potatoes took his fancy, and he incontinently seized and swallowed a red-hot tuber as big as a large pomegranate. Then we. roared ; the antics that bird performed would have galvanised a corpse into laughter. He danced, he jumped, he kicked, he twisted It's neck about almost into knots, he flapped bis wings and waggled his tail, he ran amuck, knocking things down and banging himself up against the wagirons and stone walls: he hissed and swore—yes, swore and at last tore away into the veldt at 20 miles an hour until he was out of sight, and did not appealagain for a couple of hours. Every morning, soon after sunrise, these birds would indulge in a dance. They would rush away into the veldt for about a mile, ami then suddenly stop and commence waltzing round and round in the most ridiculous fashion, often till they dropped. I never could understand the meaning of this performance; it might be mere gambolling, young birds playing, as so many young auuimals do. Their keen sense of hearing is quite as acute, and if they were feeding two or three miles away, a low mealies (maize) rattled in a till pannikin would suffice to bring them back.—South Africa.

The peacock's spreading train is not the bird's tail, but a crown of feathers above the tail. The true tail consists of IS feathers beneath the " corona," as it is styled. The latter is provided with a curious system of muscles) by which it can be erected at wil l . A newspaper in the United States, published at Sioux Falls, says that two of its subscribers, whenever they t'et drunk, always conic in and pay a year's subscription in advance. One of them has already paiil up to the year 1011, and the other is only a few years behind him. A ladies' paper is responsible for tho following cutting :—" According to an authority on the subject, there is a gieat deal of character in a man's moustache. When the moustache is ragged and, as it were, Hying hither and thither, there is a lack of proper self-control on the put of its owner. If there is a tendency to curl at the outer ends of the moustache them is a tomb-noy to ami) t'on, vanity, Slid display. When the curl turns upward tuere is a geniality combined with a love of approbation ; when the inclination is downward there i 3 a more sedate turn of mind, not accompanied with gloom,'