1 4 o A COLONY IN THE MAKING chap. 



hardness and firmness of the flue, these qualities being 

 desirable from the point of view of the trade. Soft 

 living and luxury have induced softness and woolliness 

 of flue, and to restore the original quality some of the 

 best breeders in South Africa are desiring a re-intro- 

 duction of wild blood and are turning their eyes 

 towards the wild stock of British East Africa. 



Now these statements, made with so great authority 

 and in so convincing a manner, must be a source of 

 the utmost gratification to all ostrich breeders in the 

 Protectorate. It is universally admitted by those who 

 have had an opportunity of judging that our wild 

 birds are superior both in size and feather to those of 

 South Africa. If, therefore, we choose or are forced 

 to start at the bottom and evolve our breed of 

 ostriches by selection from the local stock solely, we 

 shall in all probability, in the course of ten, fifteen, 

 or twenty years, produce a sample which the south 

 cannot match. One thing seems fairly obvious. 

 South African breeders have already approached us 

 with a view to obtaining cock birds. Unless they are 

 prepared to treat us in the fairest and most reciprocal 

 manner by exchanging breeding birds of the highest 

 quality that they have evolved, we should be ex- 

 tremely chary of parting with our tangible asset. 



In the meanwhile, progress is steady, and it need 

 not be thought, because the prices obtained by 

 our feathers are at present comparatively small, that 

 even these prices are such as will not pay the settler 

 who, starting from the beginning, determines to make 

 ostrich-breeding his staple industry. On the contrary, 

 there is no reason whatever why a settler starting with 

 a capital of ^800 or even lower should not find him- 

 self at the end of five years with an income as large as 



