234 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



giving avis struthio. " Ostrich " is a contraction of this low 

 Latin compound. So we have in this name a combination of 

 two words from different languages, having the same meaning. 

 The terms "cock," "hen," and "chick" are used with the 

 name of the species, to designate respectively the adult male, 

 the adult female, and the young before the first plucking. 



Origin and history in domestication. The domestic ostrich 

 is the wild African ostrich in captivity. It is probable that the 

 ostrich was familiar to the people of Northern Africa, and was 

 known to those of the adjacent parts of Asia and Europe, in 

 prehistoric times. In very early times ostriches may have been 

 kept in captivity for their feathers, as they are now kept in the 

 Sudan, but, until about 1 860, when the farmers of South Africa 

 began to take an interest in the subject, we have no knowledge 

 of any efforts to breed ostriches in captivity and to improve the 

 quality of the feathers by giving the birds more nutritious food 

 than they usually get in the wild state. The first stock used in 

 South Africa was some of the wild stock found in that part of 

 the continent. In 1882 the first ostriches were brought to the 

 United States. 



Place in domestication. Commercially the ostrich is valuable 

 only for its plume feathers. The extent of the development of 

 ostrich culture depends upon the demand for ostrich feathers 

 at prices that will warrant breeding ostriches to supply them. 

 When the industry was first established in South Africa, ostrich 

 feathers brought high prices and the business was very profit- 

 able ; but so many farmers engaged in it, and the supply of 

 feathers increased so rapidly that prices soon became much 

 lower and have never since returned to the scale that prevailed 

 at that time. 



The flesh of the ostrich is edible, but it is so hard and tough 

 that no one would grow ostriches for their flesh. The egg of 

 an ostrich is about as large as two dozen hen eggs. Ostrich 

 eggs are said to be very good, but they are too large for ordinary 



