Then the dogs can easily catch it.
The ostrich makes a hole in the ground under a bush for its eggs. This
is its nest. The eggs are very large, and they are good to eat. Its
flesh is also good to eat. Of course you know ostrich feathers are
pretty for ladies' hats. The feathers for hats are taken from the tail
and from the ends of the wings. But the feathers of the ostrich in
Patagonia are not so fine and pretty as the feathers of the ostrich
found in Africa.
There is an animal in Patagonia called the puma. It is like a cat, but
it is much stronger. Often it kills and eats the guanaco.
[Illustration: Pumas.]
The boys and girls in Patagonia have very few toys, but they are merry
and happy. As the boys grow up, they soon learn to hunt; and then they
go out with their fathers to hunt the guanaco and the ostrich.
THE PYGMIES.
Perhaps you have read in fairy tales of very little people called
dwarfs. There are old stories which tell us about very small men who
lived a long time ago in Africa. They were called pygmies. They were
only one foot high, and they built their houses with eggshells. They
lived in holes in the ground. They had goats and sheep which were much
smaller than themselves, and they had corn which they cut down with
axes, as we cut down trees.
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