SOME KKSl'LTS OF OSTKU 11 1 N VKSTJC.ATloNS. 28 1 



Though well develo])ed and of supreme importance at the present 

 time for supporting the bird and for running and walking, 

 evidence has been adduced to prove that in the loss of the scales 

 we already have the first hints of its degeneration. 



The degenerative processes must be carried out with extreme 

 slowness, probably tens or hundreds of thousands of years being 

 involved. The many survivals still met with reveal how long the 

 genetic factors may persist in some birds, although lost to the 

 race generally. If, however, the degenerative influence is as 

 relentless as it appears to be, there seems every reason to fear 

 that in the end the sad spectacle will be presented of a plumeless, 

 wingless, and legless ostrich. This result might ultimately be 

 exjiected if the bird were left to nature, subject to all its iniierent 

 tendencies. 



Now, however, that man has taken the ostrich under his 

 charge, nature need not be allowed its free, unrestricted course. 

 By means of selection, the degenerative tendencies can to a large 

 extent be held in check, and the farmer can retain the bird very 

 much in the condition he desires, or even restore it to some 

 former state. Nothing essential to its welfare is yet lost to the 

 ostrich as a race — some still retain all that is desired — and these 

 birds can be selected to the exclusion of others where degenera- 

 tion has proceeded furthest. Thus already experiments are in 

 progress to arrest the further loss of the valuable wing jilumes, 

 and to provide the farmer with a bird giving 42 plumes in place 

 of an average of 36, the other rows being increased in the same 

 proportion, and all the plumes of high quality. The tendency to 

 loss of plumage of the wing as a whole can be checked by 

 selecting as breeders birds having the factors for a high number 

 of plumes. Also, if any fear be entertained that the ostrich may 

 lose its only toe, the tendency can be almost indefinitely checked 

 by breeding from birds showing the least evidence of degenera- 

 tion, and eliminating as breeders those w^ith the greatest loss of 

 scales. The principles elaborated by Mendelian researches will 

 enable us to ]:)roceed in a genetical problem of this nature with 

 an assurance undreamt of under the older methods of breeding. 



From a zoological point of view, the outlook is attractive. 

 While developing the plumage to its highest possibihties, both of 

 quality and quantity, there is added the anticipation of arresting 

 the retrogressve tendencies in the ostrich, and ultimately of 

 restoring the wing to its ancestral, heavily-plumaged condition. 

 Under domestication, birds already degenerative will gradually 

 be eliminated, and those with desirable ancestral characters 

 remaining will be encotiraged. Not only will the restoration apply 

 to the principal row of valuable wMng ])lumes, but also to the 

 upper and under coverts, and perhaps include the feathers of 

 the third finger ; and possibly the provision of a general covering 

 for the present nakedness of the entire under-surface of the 

 Aving. With the material already found to exist, even though 

 scattered among different birds, it becomes ])ossible to build up an 



