December, 19 lo 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



479 



Harvesting the feathers. The bird's head is co\ ered 



It is thought that the color of the sexes has 

 something to do with developing these instincts. 

 The male, being black, is not so easily seen at 

 night, and the female, being drab or nearly the 

 color of sand, cannot be readily observed on the 

 nest in daytime. The male usually begins to 

 sit three or four days before the hen stops lay- 

 ing. If the weather is cold during the laying 

 period, the male will often be found covering 

 the eggs at intervals during the night, to pre- 

 vent them from becoming chilled. The birds 

 are also very watchful in the warmest season 

 to prevent the eggs from becoming super- 

 heated by the sun. The birds do this by rest- 

 ing on their ankle joints and spreading their 

 wings umbrella-wise over the nest. 



As is usually the case with all eggs in a 

 dry climate, the shell of an ostrich egg becomes 

 dry and hard. It is therefore very difficult 

 for the chick to break through. When the time 

 arrives for the liberation of the young, they are 

 heard to chirp and to move in the shell. The par- 

 ent bird seems to understand the situation, and 



will often crack the shells with his breastbone, some- 

 times taking the young by the head and pulling it 

 out of the shell. Sometimes four or five days elapse 

 between the hatching of the first and the last egg. 

 During this time one of the parent birds sticks to 

 the nest while the other takes care of the chicks. 

 However, on a well-regulated ostrich farm the 

 farmer asists the birds in hatching by cracking the 

 eggs with a small hammer and putting the un- 

 h:itched eggs into an incubator. 



The chicks appear to be all eyes and necks when 

 they first come out of the shells, yet their bodies are 

 as large as those of full-grown hens. They are as 

 fuzzy and as soft as a day-old chicken, but far more 

 stupid. For the first week of their existence nothing 

 but gravel is given the young ostriches. Then they 

 are turned into small pens in the alfalfa lots, where 

 they are to eat alfalfa for the rest of their lives. 



Plucking is the general term by which the harvest- 

 ing of feathers is known. The term might lead one 

 to believe that the feathers are pulled out. This is 

 not the case, however, for that would injure the bird. 

 The plumes are snipped off with shears close to the 



A male chick just hatched by an incubator 



A pair of birds and their eggs 



flesh. The quills that are left soon die and 

 drop out, after which new feathers begin to 

 sprout. There are twenty-five long white 

 plumes on each wing of the cock bird. The 

 rest of the plumage is black on the male and of 

 a grayish color on the female. Gathering the 

 feathers is no easy task. This work has to be 

 done with great care, for a kick from one of 

 the powerful legs of the bird is enough to dis- 

 able a man for life or even kill him outright. 



At the plucking time the birds are driven 

 into individual plucking boxes, and a loose bag 

 slipped over their heads, which tends to keep 

 them quiet. A cock bird will roar mournfully 

 while being plucked, although the operation is 

 absolutely painless. After he has been stripped 

 of his plumage, he is about as ugly a sight as 

 one could behold. 



The first experiment of ostrich farming in 

 this country was made by an Englishman, who 

 imported his birds from Africa and paid as high 

 as $T,200 a pair for them. Where he made no 

 fortune, others have reaped the harvest. 



