176 



EEMAEKS ON A EECENT PEOPOSAL TO LNTBODUCE 



OSTEICHES INTO TASMANIA. 



By Jas. Andrew. 



During last year a proposal was made to the Government 

 to introduce Ostriches into Tasmania, following the example 

 of what was done with some little success in the Continental 

 Colonies of Australia and in New Zealand at a time when 

 very large profits were made out of this industry in the Cape 

 Colony and other South African States. The offer, however, 

 was made subject to the financial safeguard of a Government 

 guarantee, and failed to secure favourable consideration. 



Prom observations of the habits of wild ostriches, and from 

 some little experience of their management when domesticated, 

 having owned birds myself, I venture to offer a few remarks 

 on farming for feathers, and the possibility of such an 

 industry being successfully carried out in Tasmania. 



An observer of ostriches in their native state would 

 imagine the task of bringing such birds under the subjection 

 of man to be almost an impossibility. No wild creature of 

 the plains is so difficult to approach, "none are so timid or so 

 fleet. The stratagems of natives or the well organised 

 arrangements of professional hunters are required to ensure 

 a successful chase. And yet their domestication has been 

 comparatively easy, and now that their habits are well 

 understood it is found that in confinement they can be bred 

 and reared, and maintained as adult birds, with no appreciable 

 loss of their natural characteristics. 



Their chosen home is a waterless desert, with sparse and 

 stunted vegetation, affording no shelter from the burning sun ; 

 their food small reptiles and animals, the young leaves and 

 twigs of _ bushes, and the wiry grass and other small plants 

 whose existence under such surroundings is always a mystery 

 to travellers. The speed of the ostrich is a marvel of pace. 

 Each stride, as has been verified by careful measurements, is 

 from 22ft. to 28ft. One observer reports 30 strides of 12ft. 

 each in ten seconds, or 26 miles per hour, which agrees with 

 the estimate formed by Dr. Livingstone. 



The male bird is an imposing creature, in height to the top 

 of the head often Oft. and even sometimes 10ft., thus exceeding 

 any other existing species of aves. The neck is long and 

 muscular, the head small, with a broad and depressed bill, 

 eyes large and brilliant. The wings arc hardly more than 

 rudimentary, being useless for purposes of flight, the thighs 



