THE OSTRICH-FARM AT STELLINGEN 259 
are placed the animals which have just arrived from foreign 
parts, so that they may have time to get over the effects of 
their sea voyage and become used to their new environment, 
before going loose among the rest. This is a very necessary 
precaution ; for if they were placed at once among the other 
ostriches before becoming accustomed either to the climate 
or to the food, they would die in a very short time. 
THE CHICKEN-HOUSE. 
At the conclusion of his round, the visitor arrives at the 
chicken-house, where the young ostriches are born and pass 
the first few weeks of their lives. Part of this chicken-house 
is separated off from the rest by a glass door, and is devoted 
to the housing of the incubator. Here the eggs are kept 
day and night at an even temperature, and, if the visitor is 
lucky, he may, perchance, see eggs which are half pecked 
open by the chickens inside trying to get out. On the other 
side of the building there is a long compartment in which 
the chicks are placed soon after they have been hatched. It 
is separated from the visitor by a glass wall, and is partly 
overgrown with the lucern which acts as food for the chicks. 
The floor of the chicken-room is covered with sand, and 
there is an arrangement of hot-water pipes for warming 
not only the air of the room but also the sand itself. After 
they are hatched, the chickens are left for a short time in the 
incubator and they are then transferred to this chamber. 
It is very important that the young animals should not be 
allowed out in the wet, and the chicken-house serves the 
purpose of a shelter for them in rainy weather. It is, how- 
ever, provided with glass doors leading into a clover field, 
so that they may have opportunities of running about out- 
side when the weather is sunny. 
Many causes concurred in moving me to establish the 
ostrich-farm at Stellingen. In the first place there has 
always been a continuous demand for ostriches from per- 
sons wishing to establish ostrich-farms abroad. Previously 
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