36 NATLlt.iL msTullY UF BIUDS. 



water strapiicd iimler their lioi-ses' bellies, and a scanty allowance of food for four or 

 five days, distrilmted jiicliciuusly about tlit-ir saddles. Tlie ostrich generally lives in 

 conii)anies of from four to six individuals, which do not ai>j)ear to be in the habit, 

 under ordinary circumstances, of wandering more than twenty or thirty miles from 

 their head"|uartcrs. When descried, two or three of the hunters follow the herd at a 

 gentle galloj), endeavoring only to keep the birds in sight, without alarming them or 

 driving them at full sjieud, when they would soon be lost to view. The rest of the 

 jiursuers leisurely proceed in a direction at right angles to the course which the ostriches 

 have taken, knowing Ijy experience their haliil of running in a circle. Posted on the 

 best lookout tlicy can tiiid, they await for hours the auticijiated route of the game 

 calculating uj)on intersecting their j)ath. If fortunate enough to detect them, the re- 

 lay sets upon the now fatigiieil flock, and fre(jucntly succeeds in running one or two 

 down, though a horse or two generally falls exhausted in the j)ursuit. The ostrich, 

 when overtaken, offers no resistance beyond kicking out sideways. A skin in full 

 jilumage is worth on the spot from forty to one hundreil S)>anish dollars; ))ut the 

 Aralis are in the habit of judiciously thinning the feathers, so that the trader can 

 rarely obtain a sj)eciuien on wliich this tax has not been ]iaid." 



The chase of wild ostriches for the sake of the feathers will soon become a thing 

 of the pa.st, however, since now the rational domestication of this valuable bird has 

 proved a grand success. The natives of some parts of Africa have, in fact, been 

 practising "ostrich farming" before white men visited them, and even used artificial 

 incubation. We are told that tribes of Sudan, the upper Senegal, and the Algerian 

 frontiers raise their ostriches like real jMiullry-yard liinls. 15y d:iy the birds wander 

 about the camj) in search of food, and come back again at night-fall to ]>ass the night 

 under the shelter of their master's tents. When the tribe is traveling, they follow 

 faithfully along without ever turning aside, ancl without e\ incing the least dcNire to 

 return to a wild life. Still this ostrich raising has been (|uile insignificant, and only a 

 small fraction of the plumes in the market was due to that source, and it was first 

 when the Kumjiean — ]iarticularly English — colonists in different jiartsof Africa com- 

 menced that remunerative business oti a grand scale, that the su]>ply of ostrich-feathers 

 from tame birds, bred in captivity, became consitlerable. A few figures will show 

 tlie inijiortance of this new branch of "stock" raising, which is hardly twenty years 

 old, since, in ISfi;"), the Knglish colonies owned only eighty tame ostriches. The value 

 of the annual yield of feathers in South Africa at the present day is estimated at 

 about four million dollars, while in 1805 the total export (wild and tame) from the 

 Cape did not reach one-tenth of that .amount. 



On an "ostrich farm" the industry is ilivided into two branches, that of producing 

 feather;*, and of raising young birds. From a recent report on the subject we make 

 the following interesting extracts : An ostrieli is first plucked at the age of six to 

 eiiiht months, and n<j;ain six to nine months later, and every succeeding six to nine 

 months. The chicken feathers are of little value, say about five dollars ])er bird, but 

 the next and following jduckings realize from forty to one hundred and fifty dollars 

 per bird. The length of time between each plucking, the weight of the feathers, and 

 the richness of the jdumage, depend partly u]ion what care is taken not to extrat't the 

 feathers too early, thus causing injury to the wing, but more esjiecially upon the quality 

 of the pasturage. On good grazing land, one acre is required ])er bird. The best 

 mode of ])liickiug the feathers is not to ]>ull them out, but to cut the quill alxnit an 

 inch from the root, the portion left in the wing speedily "ripens," and may in a i>.-\v 



