As soon as they come upon ostrich tracks, the hunters examine them closely. If they appear only in the form of patches here and there eaten down to the ground, it shows that the ostrich has come here merely to graze. But if the tracks cross each other in all directions, if the grass has been trampled under foot, but not eaten, it is a sure sign that the ostrich has made her nest in the neighbourhood. The hunters thereupon search attentively for the spot where she has deposited her eggs, and approach it with the greatest precautions. While the ostrich is digging out her nest, all day long her plaintive moanings may be heard, but after her eggs are laid she never utters her usual cry until about three in the afternoon. The female sits on her eggs from morning till mid-day, while the male goes to the pasture. At noon he returns, and the female goes to feed in her turn. When she comes back, she places herself four or five paces from the nest, in front of the male, who incubates all night. The male himself keeps watch over the eggs to defend them from all enemies. Jackals, among others, often times place themselves in ambush near at hand ready to play them an evil turn, and their bodies have frequently been found by the hunters lying not far from the nests, stricken to death by the male—the female being too timid to inspire any fear. It is in the morning, during the time the female is sitting, that the hunters dig on each side of the nest, and not above twenty paces distant, a hole deep enough to contain a man. They then cover it over with the long grass so common in the desert, so that only his rifle is seen. The best marksmen are, of course, placed in these holes. Seeing all these preparations, the female takes fright, and runs off to join the male, who beats her and compels her to return to the nest. If these preparations were to be made while the male is brooding, he would go off to join the female, and neither of them would ever come back again.