6 Presidential Address : 



strictly ornithological address, and o-iven myself the pleasure 

 of expressing my appreciation of the ornithological book of 

 our year, I shall now ask for your indulgence towards a 

 subject which the Secretary announced at a very early stage 

 in our arrangements, one to which I have for the last two 

 years, amidst many other duties, given considerable attention, 

 namely, the bionomics of the domesticated Ostrich in South 

 Africa. 



The Ostrich must ever have an interest for a zoologist in 

 South Africa, whether regarded from a purely scientific 

 point of view or from its great economic importance. It is 

 the largest living bird in existence, a kind of " left-over," as 

 it were, from a past state of affairs. In it we have before us 

 a straightforward instance of a bird originally wild being- 

 brought under a high state of domestication ; we still have 

 numbers in their primitive wild condition, while there are 

 now hundreds of thousands subjected to farming influences. 

 We can observe the changes which the Ostrich is undergoing 

 as a result of fundamental modifications in its environment, 

 probably better than in the case of any other domesticated 

 animal. The production of feathers has reached an intense 

 degree of specialization, equal to that of many of the older 

 animal or vegetable products of value to man. The plumes 

 are studied in all their details with the same degree of 

 thoroughness we give to the productions of sheep or cattle, or 

 of the vine and the cereals; and I see no reason why the term 

 ornithologist may not be extended to one who studies the 

 domesticated Ostrich in all its phases, with a view to arriving 

 at the solution of the scientific problems underlying its 

 altered existence. 



We are living in an age when everywhere there is a 

 demand that the forces of science should be devoted to the 

 solution of such problems as will assist man in the better 

 knowledge and control of nature ; and especially is this the 

 case in South Africa, where nature is often so wayward and 

 there are so few to direct her. As Zoologists we have pro- 

 bably all been trained under the influence best expressed by 

 the aphorism, "' science for science^s sake " ; a principle it 



