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ment he is about to be seized, whips the big plume off his head, and thrusting the spike to which the feathers are bound into the ground, slips off. While the furious animal is venting his rage on the nodding feathers, the wild hunter steals to its rear and transfixes it with his assagai.

In hunting the ostrich the mode most favored by the European sportsmen is to lie in wait at the margins of such pools and springs as the birds come to to drink. They swallow the water deliberately, and by a succession of gulps. While staying at Elephant Fountain, Andersson shot eight within a very short period. "Lying in wait," however, and taking advantage of your game from behind a wall or hedge, is by no means as a rule a favorite system with the European hunter. If an animal has "fight" in it, nothing gives the true sportsman greater pleasure than for it to demonstrate the same to the fullest extent-sharp steel against talons just as sharp and terrible, swift bullets against swift and sudden springs and bounds and death-dealing fangs; the chances are brought to something like a balance, and the old English motto, " fair play," which Englishmen would carry with them even to the heart of an Indian tiger jungle, vindicated. Should the animal chased be dependent on its fleetness for safety, again the true sportsman would meet it with its own weapons, and stake bit and spur on the issue of the chase.

Mr. Andersson relates the particulars of a chase after young ostriches by himself and a friend, and which is none the less interesting that it bears witness to the tender solicitude of the ostrich for its progeny. "While on the road between the Bay and Scheppmansdorf we discovered a male and female ostrich, with a brood of young ones about the size of ordinary barn-door fowls. This was a sight we had long been looking for, as Galton had been requested by Professor Owen to procure a few craniums of the young of this bird. Accordingly we dismounted from our oxen and gave chase, which proved of no ordinary interest.

"The moment the parent-birds became aware of our intention they set off at full speed, the female leading the way, the young following in her wake, and the cock, though at some little distance, bringing up the rear of the family party. It was very touching to observe the anxiety the old birds evinced for the safety of their young. Finding that we were quickly gaining upon them, the male at once slackened his pace and diverged somewhat from his course; but seeing that we were not to be diverted from our purpose, he again increased his speed, and with wings drooping so as almost to

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touch the ground he hovered round us, now in wide circles and then decreasing the circumference till he came almost within pistol-shot, when he threw himself abruptly on the ground and struggled desperately to regain his legs, as it appeared, like a bird that has been badly wounded. Having previously fired at him, I really thought he was disabled, and made quickly toward him; but this was only a ruse on his part; for on my nearer approach he slowly arose, and began to run in an opposite direction to that of the female, who by this time was considerably ahead with her charge. After about an hour's severe chase, however, we secured nine of the brood, and though it consisted of about double that number, we found it necessary to be contented with what we had bagged."

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THE REINDEER.

WHAT the horse is to us is the reindeer to the swarthy-faced, stunted inhabitant of Lapland or Spitzbergen. The reindeer is the Lap's cow and sheep and ox and ass rolled into one. It furnishes

HEAD OF REINDEER.

him with roofing for his house, with flooring for ditto, with a bed to lie on, with clothes and shoes, with cordage and strings to his bow, with meat dried and fresh, with milk liquid or in preserved and frozen lumps, and with blood puddings. By the reindeer the Laplander lives, and moves, and has his being; "reindeer" is with him but another term for wealth, and as exactly represents it as does gold in the ordinary commercial sense.

The reindeer is a stoutbuilt, muscular animal, weighing on an average about three hundred pounds. Its hair is

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long, thick, close, and of a slaty-grey color, merging into white about the hinder-parts and under the belly. The horns of the reindeer are large and branched, and serve the animal in good stead as weapons of defense. The female, as well as the male of the species, has horns; but they are much smaller and weaker. These horns, as is the case with the entire deer tribe, are reproduced from year to year.

The man Lap and the woman Lap alike adopt the skin of this precious member of the deer family as clothing material, and both wear precisely the same shaped garments. A pair of breeches are cut from the skin of a fawn, sewn with fine gut-strings, with a reindeerbone needle, a pair of deer-hide stockings are drawn over the feet and secured above the knee by deer-thong garters, while the hairy coat stripped from the back of the deer and transferred to that of the Lap is converted into a pelisse by a very simple process--the fags and hanging pieces are just trimmed off, a big hole cut in the centre

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