LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



783 



There are not many young animals, says Mrs. Martin, " pret- 

 tier than a young ostrich chick during the first few weeks of life. 

 It has such a sweet, innocent baby-face, such large eyes, and such 

 a plump, round little body. All its movements are comical, and 

 there is an air of conceit and independence about the tiny creat- 

 ure which is most amusing. Instead of feathers, it has a little 

 rough coat which seems all made up of narrow strips of material 

 of as many different shades of brown and gray as there are in a 

 tailor's pattern-book, mixed with shreds of black ; while the head 

 and neck are apparently covered with the softest plush, striped 

 and colored just like a 

 tiger's skin on a small 

 scale." As they grow they 

 lose all their prettiness 

 and roundness, their bod- 

 ies become angular and ill- 

 proportioned, and a crop 

 of coarse wing - feathers 

 sprouts from the stripes. 



The " chicken feathers " 

 are plucked for the first 

 time when the bird is nine 

 months old. They are stiff 

 and narrow > with pointed 

 tips, and do not look as if 

 they could be used for any- 

 thing but making feather 

 brooms. The quality is 

 improved in the second 

 year ; but it is not till their 

 wearer is plucked for the 



third time that the feathers have attained their full width and soft- 

 ness. During the first two years, when their plumage is all of a 

 dingy drab mixed with black, the sexes can not be distinguished. 

 Then they begin to differentiate ; and at five years, when the birds 

 have attained maturity, the plumage of the male is of a beautiful 

 glossy black and that of the female of a soft gray, while both 

 nave white wings and tails. In each wing there are twenty-four 

 long white feathers, which, when the wing is spread out, hang 

 gracefully round the bird like a deep fringe The thighs are bare 

 and the flat head is bald, except for a few stiff bristles and scanty 

 tufts of down. During the breeding season the bill of the male 

 bird and the large scales on the fore part of his legs assume a 

 beautiful deep rose-color, looking as if they were made of fine pink 

 coral ; and in some cases the skin of the head and neck becomes 

 red too. The North African or Bethany ostriches have bright red 



OSTBICH-CHICK. 



