160 Crossing the North and South African Ostrich 



The South African birds employed are such as have been produced 

 by gradual selection during the fifty years or so since ostrich farming 

 was first established at the Cape. The foundation stocks naturally 

 consisted of wild birds, and the best of these and their progeny have 

 been employed in building up the superior strains of to-day. The 

 ultimate object in ostrich breeding is simple and well defined. The farmer 

 selects only for feather production; no other character of the bird is 

 taken into account, as any weakness in constitution or breeding power 

 is scarcely observable. Also, practically only one feather ideal exists, 

 namely, the largest feather combining all the many desirable features 

 at their maximum. The technical " points " relate to details concerning 

 length, width, strength, shapeliness, density and lustre, in all of which 

 ostrich plumes vary greatly. None of the original South African strains 

 possessed the highest expression of these in combination, and the object 

 throughout has been to gather into one all the best features available. 

 As yet no breeder has succeeded in doing this, though many are nearing 

 the desired end. The ostrich farmer clearly appreciates the distinct- 

 ness of the various characters of the plume, though in his selection for 

 mating he proceeds mainly on the assumption of a blending inheritance, 

 and in practice the method is succeeding, even though progress is slow 

 and much variety is encountered in the progeny. When the ideal type 

 of plume has been built up it is understood that it must be " fixed " by 

 a measure of in-breeding, and at present widely divergent crosses are 

 rarely made. 



It is generally conceded that, notwithstanding all the selection 

 which has taken place, no advance has been made on the best of the 

 feather points originally scattered among the foundation stocks, except 

 such as can be ascribed to improved nutrition and other conditions 

 dependent upon domestication ^ All that the farmer has done is to 

 combine in the one plume the best of the features originally distributed 



^ As long projecting outgrowths of the epidermis, with a core or medulla of highly 

 vascular nourishing dermis, ostrich plumes during their six months' growth are remarkably 

 sensitive to the nutritive and other physiological conditions of the bird; even the varia- 

 tions of blood-pressure between day and night often leave their impress upon the growing 

 feather in the form of "bars," while climatic conditions may make or mar the success of 

 the feather crop. The greatest difference in value obtains between a well-grown and an 

 imperfectly grown crop of feathers, and this accounts for the great care bestowed upon the 

 management of the birds, and the highly stimulating food supplied. Probably the high 

 grade ostrich is the best cared-for and most pampered of all our domestic animals. No 

 better subject for studying the influence of a varying nutrition and blood-pressure upon a 

 growing structure could be chosen than its long plumes, growing at the rate of a quarter 

 of an inch a day. 



