266 BEASTS AND MEN 
or removed for them by their keepers. The feathers are sorted 
immediately they have been cut, those coming from the cocks 
being kept separate from those coming from the hens. 
They are all sent off to London, where they are sold by 
auction and despatched to every part of the world. 
It is much to be hoped that, before long, ostrich feathers 
will come to be considered the most ornamental and useful 
feathers for ladies’ hats. If such a fashion could be intro- 
duced, the massacre of many millions of very beautiful and 
valuable birds would be put an end to. It is high time that 
this should be done, for the slaughter is rapidly leading to 
the extinction of some of the most handsome species in the — 
world. This abominable trade is still carried on vigorously 
in Germany, but I am glad to say that in England the 
fashions are not quite so barbarous, and ostrich feathers are 
used to a far greater extent than they arein Germany. The 
most recent statistics show that South African farmers make 
from their ostriches a profit of from 42 10s. to £3 each per 
annum, and in the year 1907 there were exported from 
Cape Colony alone no less than 598,267 Ibs. of ostrich 
feathers valued at 41,819,668. 
There seems no reason why the German colonists in 
East and South-West Africa should not do as well in this 
trade as the people of Cape Colony, but it certainly is the 
case that they do not. There is no sort of reason, moreover, 
why any of the countries of South America should not do 
equally well. I have always found that ostriches may be 
safely kept in large fields in company with quadrupeds, and 
on the immense prairies of South America, carrying hundreds 
of thousands of cattle, it would be little extra trouble to the 
persons in charge of them to maintain large numbers of 
ostriches at the same time. I am convinced that by this 
expedient the owners of large herds of cattle could make a 
considerable increase in their annual profits. 
In October, 1903, I received an order from a Rajah in 
Nepal to send him two pairs of African ostriches. They 
