784 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



thighs, head, and neck, are much handsomer than the Cape birds ; 

 and their feathers, being larger and softer and having longer fila- 

 ments, command higher prices. 



Ostriches are extremely nervous and subject to panics, under 

 the influence of which they will run immoderately, often till they 

 are lost. At plucking-time they are driven in from all the cor- 

 ners of the farm whither they have wandered, and collected first 

 in a large inclosure, then in a small one, the plucking-kraal, in 

 which they are crowded together so closely that the most savage 

 bird has no room to make himself disagreeable. Besides the gate 

 through which the ostriches are driven into the kraal, there is an 

 outlet at the opposite end, through the " plucking-box." This is 

 a firm wooden box, in which, though there is just room for an os- 

 trich to stand, he can not turn round or kick. At each end is a 

 stout door, one of which opens inside, the other outside, the kraal. 

 Each bird in succession is dragged up to the first door, and, after 

 more or less of a scuffle, is pushed in and the door slammed be- 

 hind him. Then the two operators, standing one on each side of 

 the box, have him completely in their power ; and, with a few 

 rapid snips of the shears, his wings are denuded of their long 

 white plumes. These, to prevent their tips being spoiled, are al- 

 ways cut before the cpiills are ripe. The stumps of the latter are 

 allowed to remain some two or three months longer, until they 

 are so ripe that they can be pulled out generally by .the teeth of 

 the Kaffirs without hurting the bird. It is necessary to pull 

 them ; for the feathers which, by their weight would have caused 

 the stumps to fall out naturally at the right time, are gone. 

 Some farmers, anxious to hurry on the next crop of feathers, are 

 cruel enough to draw the stumps before they are ripe : but Na- 

 ture, as usual, resents the interference with her laws, and the 

 feathers of the birds which have been thus treated soon deteri- 

 orate. 



After a good rain, ostriches soon begin to make nests. The 

 males become very savage, and their note of defiance brooming 

 as it is called by the Dutch is heard in all directions. The bird 

 inflates his neck in a cobra-like fashion, and gives utterance to 

 three deep roars, the first two short and staccato, and the third 

 very prolonged, the whole being described as identical in sound 

 with the roar of the lion. When the birds are savage, or quel, as- 

 the Dutch call it, they become very aggressive, and it is impossible 

 to walk about the camps unless armed with a weapon of defense 

 called a tackey. This is a long and stout branch of mimosa, 

 with the thorns all left on at the end. " It seems but a feeble 

 protection against a foe who, with one stroke of his immensely 

 powerful leg, can easily kill a man ; the kick, no less violent than 

 that of a horse, being rendered infinitely more dangerous by the 



