BY JAS. ANDREW. 



181 



I am unable to say, but there can be no reason to doubt the 

 many authorities who vouch for the above. 



The young birds are at first about the size of domestic 

 fowls, but in their markings resemble young partridges, 

 with the peculiarity of having what appear like small porcu- 

 pine quills mixed with the down on their bodies. If 

 hatched naturally they must be removed from the camps within 

 ten or fourteen days or they are liable to acquire wild habits 

 prejudicial to discipline in their future artificial state of 

 existence. For the first month or two the chicksare exceedingly 

 susceptible to changes of temperature, they are carefully 

 watched by day by the boy in charge (any male native of what- 

 ever age is a "boy") and they soon learn to know and respond 

 to his warning cry. They are easily frightened, and at any 

 alarm scatter in all directions, and after running a short 

 distance, crouch, neck extended, on the ground, and so resemble 

 their surroundings that an inexperienced eye might easily 

 fail to detect them even if right in their midst. Dogs, from 

 their liability to cause a panic amongst youngsters and 

 annoyance to older birds, should never be seen on an ostrich, 

 farm. At night the chickens are housed in warm flannel-lined, 

 boxes placed in an artificially heated room. For a day or two 

 after first seeing light they require little or no food, but 

 make preparation for the serious business of life by taking in 

 a supply of small pebbles to assist the digestive action of the 

 gizzard. Their first sustenance consists almost exclusively of 

 soft green stuff chopped into pieces of convenient size. 

 Lucerne, rape, cabbages, etc., are the usual diet, with 

 later, a liberal supplies of mealies (Indian corn), or 

 they may be successfully reared on veldt which has been 

 kept clear from other stock. At all times, however, young 

 ostriches must be kept away from the plants of wild tobacco, 

 which, if eaten, invariably prove fatal to them. The birds 

 grow rapidly and in a month are as large as turkeys, and the 

 down has disappeared, being replaced with rudimentary 

 feathers. At six months old they require comparatively little 

 attention, the head of the bird will now be as high as an 

 ordinary man, and in a year nearly the full size is attained 

 and the first crop of feathers is fully ready for cutting. A 

 most amusing peculiarity of young birds is a tendency when 

 let out from the kraal in the morning to dance wildly and 

 rapidly in a circle, neck extended and wings opened, at first 

 revolving slowly, afterwards with increasing pace until they 

 gyrate in a most astonishing manner. Although adults in 

 size at this age it is not for another two years or more that 

 their reproductive instinct appears to be developed. 



Feather cutting is presumably the most important opera- 

 tion on a farm. The process is by no means cruel, and 

 entails far more discomfort to the men employed than to the 



