THE OSTRICH 17 



Besides the Ostrich farms started in Algiers and in 

 Tripoli, others have been begun in such ^videly different 

 places as California, Australia (Melbourne), Buenos Ayres 

 in South America, Egypt, and the South of Russia. In 

 1902 they were introduced into Madagascar, and the great 

 birds are said to have taken kindly to their new home. 



About once a month the Ostriches on such farms are 

 looked over, and those whose feathers have sufficiently 

 ripened are driven in to be plucked. Special pens are 

 provided, called plucking kraals. Here, as in an elephant 

 keddah, the Ostriches are so crowded together that they 

 have not enough elbow room, or rather, kicking room, to 

 be dangerous. There is still less room when one by one 

 they find themselves in the plucking-box. Here two 

 smart operators stand ready with their shears, and a 

 few snips relieve the bird of the beautiful plumes which 

 are his glory. These are taken charge of by the sorters, 

 who classify them according to their colour and value. 



Let us now glance at one or two cousins of the 

 Ostrich, who represent him in lands far away from his 

 native Africa. 



First of all there is the EMEU. Any one can see 

 that this bird belongs to the Ostrich family, but he looks 

 like a poor relation. Set beside his African cousin he is 

 dowdy to a degree. He has neither his height nor his 

 brilliant contrast of plumage, nor has he furnished fair 

 ladies with feathers to be proud of 



His home is. the great island-continent of Australia, 

 and, until the middle of last century and later, his tribe 

 wandered freely over the length and breadth of that late- 

 discovered, late-colonised country. But the coming of the 

 settler with his horses and his dogs meant trouble for the 

 Emeu. The wire fences of cattle stations and sheep-runs 



