The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1879-01-04

worthy of the herds, an old Bushman
named Moos, was wandering one day after
some OF his charges A spare man, his
head almost bald, with little twists of wiry
wool growing on it at great intervals, not
resembling hair in any sense, and his brown
skin drawn tightly over his wizened face
and thin, bony body The Hottentots'
hands and feet are very small, and he
wears long CATERS, made by himself out
OF sheepskins, with the wool turned in
ward. His talents are in general limited
to track the spoor of creature over the
hardest soil, where no apparent mark has
been left, and to run unwearedly so as
even to tire out horse, pretty nearly ex-
hausts the sum of them. But Moos jules
was more intelligent than some of his
countrymen. The wild ostriches are be-
coming rare and he was greatly delighted
to come upon nest scratched in the sand
with l6 great eggs in it, well within the
boundary Of his masters property. And
here that slur on the moral character of
the ostrich must be protested against as
base calumny, time -honored though it be.
So far from leaving their eggs to chance
and the sun to hatch, they are particularly
careful parents, the father and mother
birds taking it in turn to sit for six or
eight hours at a time. La a tame state
they are as regular as clock work in re-
lieving each other, and the herds declared
that they followed the farm.bell to a min
ute. The incubation is very long, and
lasts 80 days, during which they are ex-
emplary in their attentions to the eggs. If
they are away for a short time seeking
food, which, when they are wild, must
sometimes be very far afeld, it is true that
they scatter sand and dust over the nest
to keep it warm; but sit they must, and sit
they do, or there can be no progeny. Moos
made haste home with his welcome news
it was Christmas day, and, therefore, the
height Of summer in that Southern lati-
tude-and as soon as he reported that the
little birds were Matching, wagon filed
with straw, drawn by four horses, was sent
to fetch them up. Meantime, however,
the mother had taken fright at being
watched, and carried off her family into
the scrub, so that when the party arrived
there was nothing to be seen but two ad-
died eggs kicked out of the nest and one
still Unmatched within it. The inmate was
pecking fecbly at the shell, but, deprived
Of the necessary warmth, it could not make
its way out of prison. The master flung
his coat and those of his men hurriedly
round the egg, while they all followed on
the track of the escaping birds. They
were soon caught up, for the little ones,
only just out Of the she'll, could not run
fast; they look like balls of yellow. brown
fluff, the legs and neck much shorter in
proportion than in more advanced life, and
with little dainty manner of holding
themselves very pretty and amusing. The
poor mother defended them gallantly but
in vain; she looked so piteous, however,
with her beautiful, large, liquid, tender
eyes, which have long lashes on them, and
are very human, that the tender hearted
masters conscience was sore at his own
cruelty, and the next time he took an os.
triOh's nest he loft two Of the children to
the parent bird, He was sorry afterward
for his generosity, for they were never
seen again, and he believed were devoured
by the ciyet cats; besides which, after a
fortnight Or so, the young are turned off
by the parents to shift for themselves.
When the party returned to the nest, they
found that the small laggard had got out
Of his shell, looking rather woe-begone,
cramped, and high-shouldered, but still all
alive and right. The fourteen precious
little captiyes were brought safely up to
the farm, where they were fed with chopp-
ed lucerne, bran, carrots, and the pounded
shells of the added eggs, which are con-
sidered excellent food for them. Later in
life they require bits of bone, and uulimit.
ed pebbles which, indeed, are necessary
to assist the gizzard in grinding down the
food of all grain-devouring birds, and may
be found in the stomachs Of fowls, turkeys,
&c. 1t is only when the hard shell of the
barley, wheat, &C., is thus bruised and
crushed that the gastric juice can act upon
the mealy matter within; and it is a proof
Of the weakness, not the strength, of the
digestion Of the ostrich, that it thus re.
quires assistance. AT first they kept each
other warm by budding close together
under she'd, where they were put at
night for shelter, as they are tender little
things. They became very tame, espec-
tally with the women on the place, and
would always come to a pettieoat. Men
they did not like, perhaps because the
boys of the farm, (black and white are all
alike in such mattcrs,) had tormented
them. For about year they stalked
about, never straying far, but going where
they pleased, getting their own living for
the chief part, but coming in two or three
times a day for little barlcy.-GoO
Words.