156 Crossing the North and South African Ostrich 



Introduction. 



The continent of Africa, with the adjoining parts of Arabia, 

 Palestine and Asia Minor, is the natural home of the ostrich genus 

 Striithio. Beyond the confines of Africa however the wild bird is now 

 extremely rare, if it exists at all ; while in Africa it is slowly passing 

 away as the continent becomes occupied by the white settler. The 

 domesticated bird on the other hand has greatly increased in number 

 during the fifty years of ostrich farming, amounting to near one million 

 in 1913, though since considerably reduced owing to the less demand 

 for plumage as a result of the prolonged war. 



Zoologists recognise four species of the two-toed ostrich : the North 

 African ostrich, Struthio camelus Linn., the South African ostrich 

 S. australis Gurney, the East African ostrich, S. massaicus Naumann 

 and the Somali ostrich, S. molyhdophanes Reichenow. The two last 

 mentioned are not however well-established species, appearing to repre- 

 sent intermediate types of the other two. On the other hand the 

 northern and the southern birds have well-defined characteristics 

 separating them, connected with size, colour, nature of the Qgg and 

 other minor features. Observing them side by side no one would 

 hesitate in assigning them specific distinction. 



Recently a unique opportunity has presented itself for studying 

 numbers of the northern and southern ostrich under similar conditions, 

 and also the behaviour of their characters when the two are crossed. 

 In 1912 the Government of the Union of South Africa imported 132 

 specimens of the North African ostrich from Nigeria \ with the object 

 of possibly improving the domesticated strains built up from the 

 original South African wild bird. The imported birds were stationed 

 at the Grootfontein School of Agriculture, and the breeding experiments 

 to be conducted with them were placed in charge of the writer. 



The main object of the investigations is the practical one of deter- 

 mining to what degree the plumage of the southern bird can be improved 

 by crossing with the northern, but in the course of the work many other 

 questions have arisen which have an interest to students of genetics 

 generally. The experiments have been in progress for over four years, 

 and during that period about a hundred cross-bred chicks (i^i) have 

 been hatched as well as a score or so of pure North African chicks ; 

 at the present time some of the first crosses have reached the age 

 at which they are beginning to breed, but only two chicks belonging 

 1 Report on the North African Ostriches imported into South Africa in 1912. Union 

 of South Africa, Department of Agriculture, Pretoria, No. 2, 1916. 



