186 WILD ANIMAL CELEBRITIES 



or thirty big, and some few small feathers 

 have been cut off at the quill an inch or an 

 inch and a half from the body, the hood is 

 taken off, the bird looks around thoroughly 

 bewildered, and the men take their departure 

 before he has time to get angry about it. 

 There is not the slightest pain caused to the 

 birds as so many people think. For all os- 

 triches are extremely valuable and, although 

 hardy in some respects, are easily injured in 

 others, and it would be greatly against the 

 proprietors' own interests to hurt the birds 

 in any way. 



"When a bird has been plucked he has his 

 complete liberty for another nine months, 

 when he is once more captured, driven into 

 the enclosure, and the stripping process is 

 again repeated. Should an ostrich seem at 

 all worried after he is set free, he is generally 

 treated to a little bit of some food of which 

 he is particularly fond, for he will always 

 eat, no matter how much he may have had 

 already. One ostrich alone will consume four 

 or five pounds of alfalfa hay daily, a goodly 



