CHAPTER XI. 



MANAGING A TROOP OF PLUCKING BIRDS. 



Ostriches are generally designated as chicks up to 

 seven or eight months old, or as long as they have still 

 got their first crop of feathers on. From then till a 

 year old, they are called young birds. From one to 

 four years old, they are called plucking or feather 

 birds. The next two years they are properly designated 

 as four and five year old birds ; but in advertisements 

 of sales and prospectuses of companies they are often 

 called breeding birds, but this is only a trick to swell 

 the appearance of the thing. We have heard of cases 

 of men buying birds as breeding birds, thinking they 

 were buying birds that had already bred, and finding 

 afterwards that they were only four or five year old 

 birds that had not yet bred, and were consequently only 

 worth about half what they gave. Birds that have 

 been paired off in separate camps, but have not yet 

 bred, are often called "camped-off birds." As they 

 may be camped off at any age, the term conveys very 

 little information, though four years old is the usual 

 age for camping them off. After they have bred they 

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