AN OSTRICH FARM AT MACHAKOS. 167 



so. Extra prime birds are as well known and as 

 much in demand for breeding as any blood 

 horse in a racing country. Your true ostrich 

 enthusiast, like the Hills, possesses trunks full of 

 feathers not good commercially, but intensely 

 interesting for comparison and for the purposes 

 of prophecy. While I stayed with them came 

 a rumour of a very fine plucking a distant neigh- 

 bour had just finished from a likely two-year-old. 

 The Hills were manifestly uneasy until one of 

 them had ridden the long distance to compare 

 this newcomer's product with that of their own 

 two-year-olds. And I shall never forget the 

 reluctantly admiring shake of the head with 

 which he acknowledged that it was indeed a 

 " very fine feather ! " 



But getting the birds is by no means all of 

 ostrich farming, as many eager experimen- 

 ters have discovered to their cost. The birds 

 must have a certain sort of pasture land; 

 and their paddocks must be built on an earth 

 that will not soil or break the edges of the 

 new plumes. 



And then there is the constant danger of wild 

 beasts. When a man has spent years in gathering 

 suitable flocks, he cannot be blamed for wild anger 

 when, as happened while I was in the country, 



