assault alone.

He leaped the wall, descended into the bed of the stream, scrambled up
the opposite bank, crossed the clump of small wood, and came out into
the open. Now a short piece of this open--fifty yards or so, perhaps--
was visible from the lower end of the field, where Hobson and David were
still coquetting with each other. Johnny tried to skulk over this open
ground. He might as well have sought to evade the eyes of Argus. The
long-sighted bird caught the very first glint of his cap. Insult and
mealies were alike unavailing now. He forsook the sire and made at the
son with his great compass-like legs, covering the ground in tremendous
as well as rapid strides. No race-horse ever cleared the ground like
David Marais! Johnny saw that the "game was up." Applying his own long
legs to the ground with a will, he rushed at the nest. The female
bounced up, ran a few yards, and squatted in helpless stupidity. Johnny
counted the eggs, turned, and fled. Not a moment too soon! Indeed he
was too late, for the ostrich was already close up, and Johnny's retreat
by the way he had come was cut off; but he turned at a sharp angle, and
made for another clump of bushes, through which he plunged with a wild
hilarious laugh, into the safe retreat of the river-bed. David Marais
could not follow there, but he doubtless consoled himself with the
reflection that he had gallantly defended his wife and little ones, and
had beaten the enemy from the field!

Nothing of all this had I seen, for the belt of bushes hid the actors
from view, but I heard the ringing laugh with rather anxious surprise,
and saw Johnny emerge immediately after from the banks of the stream,
flushed and panting from his adventure.

That I do not exaggerate the power and ferocity of these birds, may be
gathered from an incident which occurred to Hobson himself, and which he
related on our way home.

One morning he rode to the enclosure of the bird named Master, and
entered, intending to feed him and his wife with mealies. Master must
have risen off his wrong side that morning, for, instead of amiably
accepting his breakfast, he made a sudden and furious rush at his
benefactor. Hobson's horse wheeled round and bolted,--no wonder, with
the claw of an ostrich acting as a spur on his flank! The horse was so
frightened that he fairly ran away. Master ran after him, and, being
much fleeter, kept on kicking his legs and flanks, so that they were
soon c