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DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



Recent experiments in ostrich farming seem to indicate 

 that we are on the eve of introducing into our " happy 

 family " the noblest remaining member of that group of great 

 birds which characterized the life of the later geological 

 periods. As yet the efforts in taming ostriches are too new 



for us to tell just 

 what the effect of 

 man's skill on the 

 development of this 

 creature will be. It 

 is evident, however, 

 that the creature 

 can be won from its 

 wilderness state, at 

 least to something 

 like the imperfect 

 companionship 

 with man which has 

 been attained by 

 the guinea-fowls 

 and turkeys. All 

 we know of the 

 variations in plum- 

 age of birds indi- 

 cates that the breeder's art may bring about great changes in 

 the highly decorative feathers for which this bird is to be 

 reared. It is also probable that with the better food which 

 domestic conditions imply, this wanderer of the desert may 

 be brought to attain a very much greater size than it wins in 

 the hard life of its native land. If the form should prove as 

 plastic as that of our ordinary barnyard species, we may indeed 



The Largest of all Poultry The Ostrich 



