3026 THE ZooLoGist—APRIL, 1872. 
often being away a whole year. A law has lately been passed by the Par- 
liament, prohibiting the shooting of the few birds that are left within the 
colony, or I firmly believe there would not one be left in five years’ time, 
except among the very few farmers who, would care to preserve them. 
I believe a gentleman in the Beaufort district was the first to domesticate 
wild ostriches, for the purpose of turning them to account, and his great 
success has induced others, myself among the number, to follow his example ; 
and now the demand for young ostriches is so great that the purchasers are 
said to outnumber the birds. The plan adopted for taking the young birds 
is to watch the nests of the wild parents, where one is fortunate enough to 
have them on one’s own place, and directly they come out of the egg they 
must be taken away; if they are left for a few days, it is almost impossible 
to catch them; besides which, I imagine they have as many enemies as 
other young birds, which probably accounts for the small percentage that are 
eared in the wild state. As a rule, eighteen or twenty eggs are hatched ; 
there may be fifty in the nest, but the bird cannot cover more than twenty, 
and after the nest is arranged the surplus eggs are kicked out. The young 
birds are very easily reared, but great care must be taken that they do not 
get wet. The down upon them is soon saturated, and they die at once. 
They must be kept warm at nights, and likewise in the day if the wind is 
at all keen; when they are three months old they may be gradually hardened 
by letting them stay out later in the evening, and a little shower of rain will 
not hurt them. The best food for them while young is lucerne, cut up in a 
chaff-cutter, and it is all-important that they should have gravel, of which 
they swallow quantities. I find also that shells and bones broken up are 
very good for them: it is surprising the quantity of bones they can swallow. 
When they are three months old they will eat grain, barley, wheat, or Indian 
corn; I prefer giving them the latter, and they certainly prefer it also, but 
it must be given with judgment; half-a-pound a day I consider quite 
sufficient for each bird. As regards pasture for them, the best plan is to 
keep them on lands that have been cropped, and allowed to lie without 
being ploughed; all sorts of soft weeds come up, which they eat greedily, 
and of course when there is an abundance of them they require no other 
food. This idea is perhaps rather startling to an English farmer; but 
I must explain that in this country there is only one sowing time in the 
year, so that for fully six months the lands are lying idle, and I believe the 
ostriches improve them wonderfully; in fact, I know of no better plan of 
clearing foul land than by turning in a troop of ostriches. I have now had 
fifteen months’ experience in ostrich farming, and can safely say that there 
eis no other branch that gives such a quick return or is so remunerative. 
I bought birds six months old at £9 a-head; at eight months old I took out 
the first feathers, or ‘ chicken-pens,” as they are called here. I did not 
think it worth while to send them to the market, so waited for the next 
ee 
