5176 The Zoologist — December, 187G. 



in gold — tlie birds are driven into a small pen, and the operation 

 is conducted without cruelty. An eye-witness relates: — 



" Having got with my friend into the middle of the crowd, so packed 

 that they were unable to move, he quietly selected two or three of the best 

 feathers, and with a very sharp curved knife in his right hand, the blade 

 protected by lying flat against his finger, he pressed it down as near to the 

 root as he could, and cut it off obliquely upwards. The bird was quite 

 unconscious of the operation, standing perfectly still as he hauded several 

 to me ; he then picked out a blood-feather, very beautiful, which on being 

 cut bled a little, but the sharp knife separated it without it being felt. In 

 a month or six weeks he took out all the stumps, if they had not already 

 fallen out. By this means the health of the bird is not impaired, no 

 irritation-fever is produced, and you can select the feathers that are in 

 prime condition, leaving the others that are to ripen in due course." 



At some places it is the custom to pluck the feathers out, and 

 this certainly must be painful to the birds. The finest feathers are 

 those of the wings ; a good feather is said to be almost two feet 

 long, and from eight to nine inches wide. Such a feather would 

 be cheap at a sovereign. By the Cape Government the wild birds 

 are now protected by a very stringent game law. No one can 

 kill them without taking out a £-20 licence, and there are heavy 

 penalties for robbing the nests. The eggs of the ostrich have many 

 enemies. The black crow is wont to hover over them, dropping 

 stones until it succeeds in breaking one that it may devour its 

 contents. Vultures have been seen walking towards an ostrich's 

 nest with pebbles in their beaks with which to hammer at the eggs. 

 The Bushmen carry off these precious potential feather-producers 

 to baiter them for a paltry sixpence to the collector of curios. 

 And besides the winged marauders that plunder the nests, there 

 are many human spoilers to whom an omelette of ostriches' 

 eggs is a welcome dainty. So that there is every need to give 

 the birds and their nests all the protection of the law in order 

 that there may be an available wild stock to recruit the ostrich 

 farms. 



Apparently there is no limit to which the South-African feather 

 trade might not be carried, and herein, and not in the diamond 

 fields, may be the future development of the prosperity of the 

 colony. As far as we can see, there is only one danger to 

 which the ostrich farmers are exposed. And that is the ten- 

 dency of disease to break out amongst all animals or birds 



