bit of doing it.

"You mus' know," he began, "dat bird hims be a mos' ex'roroninary beast.
When hims run hims go fasterer dan--oh! it be dumpossobable for say how
much fast hims go. You no can see him's legs; dey go same as legs ob
leetle bird. But hims be horrobably stupid. Suppose he see you far,
far away, goin' to de wind'ard ob him, he no run 'way to leeward; hims
tink you wants to get round him, so off him start to git past you, and
before hims pass he sometimes come close 'nuff to be shooted or speared.
Me hab spear him dat way, but him's awful differcult to git at for all
dat."

"Well then, Mak, after that lucid explanation, what d'you propose that
we should do?" inquired Peterkin, examining the locks of his rifle.

"Me pruppose dat you go far ober dere, Massa Ralph go not jist so far,
and me go to de wind'ard and gib him fright."

Acting upon this advice, we proceeded cautiously to the several spots
indicated, and our guide set off towards an exposed place, where he
intended to show himself. In a few minutes we observed the gigantic
bird look up in alarm, and then we saw Makarooroo running like a deer
over the plain. The ostrich instantly rushed off madly at full speed,
not, as might have been expected, in a contrary direction, or towards
any place of shelter, but simply, as it appeared to me, with no other
end in view than that of getting to windward of his supposed enemy. I
observed that he took a direction which would quickly bring him within
range of my companion's rifle, but I was so amazed at the speed with
which he ran that I could think of nothing else.

Every one knows that the ostrich has nothing worthy of the name of
wings--merely a small tuft of feathers at each side, with which he
cannot make even an attempt to fly; but every one does not know,
probably, that with his stout and long legs he can pass over the ground
nearly at the ordinary speed of a locomotive engine. I proved this to
my own satisfaction by taking accurate observation. On first observing
the tremendous speed at which he was going, I seized my note-book, and
pulling out my watch, endeavoured to count the number of steps he took
in a minute. This, however, I found was totally impossible; for his
legs, big though they were, went so fast that I could no more count them
than I could count the spokes of a carriage-wheel. I observed, however,
that there were two bushes on the plain in the direction of his flight,
which he wou