98 OSTRICH-FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



furrow running down the middle. The tamer and 

 more thoroughly domesticated they are the better, but 

 by tameness I do not mean that they should not be 

 pugnacious. 



Avoid selecting brothers and sisters, especially if 

 from the same brood or the same season ; for although 

 I doubt there being any proof forthcoming as yet that 

 any weakness in the chicks can be traced to this cause, 

 still it is beyond doubt that all sorts of undesirable 

 results have ensued from in-breeding in other animals ; 

 and, as like begets like, if there is a tendencj^ to weak- 

 ness in any organ running in a family, every time 

 members of that family inter-breed, this weakness 

 will be more highly developed. But, above all, the 

 marked checks that nature puts on the Ostrich inter- 

 breeding in the wild state should make us careful. The 

 first of these checks is, the hen invariably coming into 

 season earlier than the cock, and the persistent efforts 

 she makes at this time to get away from the camp slie 

 is in, and to wander far distances until she meets some 

 strange cock. The second is the timidity of the birds, 

 which in a wild state must cause the broods to be 

 constantly dispersed before they come to maturity. 



The size of the camp for a pair of birds greatly 

 varies. The best are from twenty to forty acres each 

 in Karoo country, but smaller on the coast, the birds 



