CHAPTER V
LEOPARDS AND RHINOS
There is a general belief firmly fixed in the
popular mind by constant repetition that the
ostrich is a very stupid bird. A man might
well expect easy hunting of a bird that tried to hide
by the traditional method of sticking its head in the
sand. But I found that the ostrich, like other
African animals, did not always realize its obligation
to tradition or abide by the rules set down
for its behaviour. I went a long way into the
waterless desert of Somaliland after ostriches. We
were just across the Haud and were camped in a
"tug" or dry stream bed where by digging we could
get water for our sixty men and the camels. During
two days of hunting in the dry bush of this desert I
had seen many ostriches, but none of them had put
its head into the ground and left its big black-and-white
plumed body for me to shoot at. On the contrary,
in this my first experience with them I found
them exceedingly wary. They kept their bodies
hidden behind the bush. Only their heads were exposed,
each head only about large enough to carry a
pair of very keen eyes and much too small to serve
as a target at the distance that they maintained. As
a result of being continually outwitted by them for
