36 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



water strapped under their horses' bellies, and a scanty allowance of food for four or 

 five days, distributed judiciously about their saddles. The ostrich generally lives in 

 companies of from four to six individuals, which do not appear to be in the habit, 

 under ordinary circumstances, of wandering more than twenty or thirty miles from 

 their headquarters. When descried, two or three of the hunters follow the herd at a 

 gentle gallop, endeavoring only to keep the birds in sight, without alarming them or 

 driving them at full speed, when they would soon be lost to view. The rest of the 

 pursuers leisurely proceed in a direction at right angles to the course which the ostriches 

 have taken, knowing by experience their habit of running in a circle. Posted on the 

 best lookout they can find, they await for hours the anticipated route of the game 

 calculating upon intersecting their path. If fortunate enough to detect them, the re- 

 lay sets upon the now fatigued flock, and frequently succeeds in running one or two 

 down, though a horse or two generally falls exhausted in the pursuit. The ostrich, 

 when overtaken, offers no resistance beyond kicking out sideways. A skin in full 

 plumage is worth on the spot from forty to one hundred Spanish dollars ; but the 

 Arabs are in the habit of judiciously thinning the feathers, so that the trader can 

 rarely obtain a specimen on which this tax has not been paid." 



The chase of wild ostriches for the sake of the feathers will soon become a thing 

 of the past, however, since now the rational domestication of this valuable bird has 

 proved a grand success. The natives of some parts of Africa have, in fact, been 

 practising " ostrich farming " before white men visited them, and even used artificial 

 incubation. We are told that tribes of Sudan, the upper Senegal, and the Algerian 

 frontiers raise their ostriches like real poultry-yard birds. By day the birds wander 

 about the camp in search of food, and come back again at night-fall to pass the night 

 under the shelter of their master's tents. When the tribe is traveling, they follow 

 faithfully along without ever turning aside, and without evincing the least desire to 

 return to a wild life. Still this ostrich raising has been quite insignificant, and only a 

 small fraction of the plumes in the market was due to that source, and it was first 

 when the European particularly English colonists in different parts of Africa com- 

 menced that remunerative business on a grand scale, that the supply of ostrich-feathers 

 from tame birds, bred in captivity, became considerable. A few figures will show 

 the importance of this new branch of " stock " raising, which is hardly twenty years 

 old, since, in 1865, the English colonies owned only eighty tame ostriches. The value 

 of the annual yield of feathers in South Africa at the present day is estimated at 

 about four million dollars, while in 1865 the total export (wild and tame) from the 

 Cape did not reach one-tenth of that amount. 



On an " ostrich farm " the industry is divided into two branches, that of producing 

 feathers, and of raising young birds. From a recent report on the subject we make 

 the following interesting extracts : An ostrich is first plucked at the age of six to 

 eight months, and again six to nine months later, and every succeeding six to nine 

 months. The chicken feathers are of little value, say about five dollars per bird, but 

 the next and following pluckings realize from forty to one hundred and fifty dollars 

 per bird. The length of time between each plucking, the weight of the feathers, and 

 the richness of the plumage, depend partly upon what care is taken not to extract the 

 feathers too early, thus causing injury to the wing, but more especially upon the quality 

 of the pasturage. On good grazing land, one acre is required per bird. The best 

 mode of plucking the feathers is not to pull them out, but to cut the quill about an 

 inch from the root, the portion left in the wing speedily " ripens," and may in a few 



