Natural Science News. 



VOL. I ALBION, N. Y., MAEOH 30, 1895. No. 9 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and Items of interest to the 

 student of any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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Work on an Ostrich Farm. 



The ostrich farms of South Afri- 

 ca are very curious and interesting 

 places. The equipments are gen- 

 erally very simple and inexpensive 

 and the crop is found to be very 

 profitable. The first requirement 

 of an ostrich farm is a "camp" or 

 pasturef or the birds, and these vary 

 in size from 3,000 to 8,000 acres. 

 Such a camp generally holds com- 

 fortably about 300 ostriches. The 

 camp must always be good pasture 

 ground, and here the birds remain 

 for the entire year, except when 

 they are brought together once ev- 

 ery four months to be plucked. 



The ostrich builds its nest in 

 the sand in a very careless fashion 

 and here it lays its eggs. The nest 

 is crudely constructed, consisting 

 simply of a round hollow carved 

 out in the sand. Sometimes the 

 female bird scratches this hole or 

 nest, but the nest is generally form- 

 ed by the birds having set continu- 

 ously upon one spot for a long 

 time. One bird will lay from ten 

 to twenty eggs, but often three or 

 four birds will lay in the same nest. 

 Often there will be as many as sev- 

 enty or eighty eggs in a single 

 nest. In this case most of the 

 eggs are taken out, since an ostrich 

 cannot cover more than sixteen 

 eggs. About forty-four days are 

 required for hatching, and when a 

 nest is hatched the little birds are 

 brought under cover and fed. 

 They are usually fed both morn- 

 ing and evening on barley or rape. 



When the time comes to pluck 

 the birds, the real work on an os- 



trich farm begins. They are us- 

 ually rounded up by a number of 

 men on horseback. At first they 

 are very fierce, but when all are 

 huddled together in a kraal every 

 bird becomes docile and manage- 

 able. The birds are taken one at 

 a tune and a bag or stocking is 

 placed over its head. It is then 

 quickly clipped by two skilled at- 

 tendants. The prime feaihers are 

 usually plucked in June. Prime 

 feathers are the long white fancy 

 feathers, and they number from 

 eighteen to twenty on each wing. 

 Four months after this picking the 

 stumps of these feathers are drawn 

 out, and two months after this the 

 "primes" or short black tail feath- 

 ers are taken out. The general 

 rule in plucking is to obtain as 

 many /eathars as possible without 

 injuring the ostrich or robbing the 

 bird of a suitable winter coat. — 

 Scientific A merican. 



The Plymouth Meteorite. 



By Henry A. Ward. 



The Plymouth meteorite was 

 found in the year 1883 by Mr. John 

 Jefferson Kyser, while plowing in a 

 field on his farm, about five miles 

 southwest of the town of Plymouth, 

 Marshall County, Indiana. Mr. 

 Kyser had about the year 1872, 

 found in the same field another, 

 larger mass of the same iron. This 

 mass was pear-shaped, about 4 feet 

 in length by 3 feet in its widest 

 diameter, narrowing to 6 or 8 in- 

 ches at its upper end. It lay for a 

 year or two so near the surface of 

 the ground as to be annoying in 

 plowing the field. On that account 

 Mr. Kyser, aided by his son, dug a 

 deep hole by the side of the mass 

 and buried it to the depth of 1 y 2 to 

 2 feet beneath the surface, where it 

 should thenceforth do no damage. 



The account of this I had last 

 June from the son, Mr. John M. 

 Kyser, now city clerk of Plymonth. 

 Mr. Kyser, well remembers the cir- 

 cumstance of the finding of the large 

 piece and assisting his father in 

 burying the same; and he further 

 thought that, notwithstanding the 

 removal of certain landmarks (a 

 fence and a tree) in the field, lie 

 would still be able to locate it very 

 closely. This he subsequently un- 

 dertook to do by trenching, but was 

 unsuccessful in finding the mass, I 



was myself present and assisted in 

 a further search for it in September 

 last, using a surveyor's magnetic 

 needle, with the hopes of the same 

 being attracted to the mass and 

 discovering it but all to no purpose 

 Mr. Kyser seems to feel very confi- 

 dent of his knowledge of the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the mass where he 

 buried it 22 years ago, but is unable 

 to prove its presence by rediscovery. 

 Nor has he the aid of another eye- 

 witness, his father having died soon 

 after the original finding and bury- 

 ing as above mentioned. 



The smaller piece, which was, as 

 before said, found in 1883, was pre- 

 sented by Mr. Kyser, Sr., to Mr. 

 W. S. Adams, who at the time, 

 kept a plow factory in the city of 

 Plymouth. It was retained in their 

 family until last November, when 

 it was brought to Ward's Natural 

 Science Establishment in Roches- 

 ter, N. Y., by Mrs. Adams, from 

 whom I procured it. 



The mass is a lengthened, tongue- 

 like form, not unlike a rude mound 

 builder's ax. Its greatest length 

 is 12^2 inches, its width 7^8 inches, 

 its thickness in the middle about 2 

 inches, from which, in the greater 

 part of its length, it slopes in a 

 somewhat even manner to a thin, 

 rounded edge. 



Its surface is deeply eroded by 

 oxidization, so that, although sound 

 and free from scales, it shows no 

 signs of an original crust. The 

 characteristic pittings of meteor- 

 ites are also by the same cause ren- 

 dered somewhat feeble, although 

 still quite clearly visible. We have 

 cut a number of thin slices from the 

 mass. These etched in dilute nit- 

 ric acid give very clear Widman- 

 statten figures. There are, further, 

 several small nodules of troilite. 



A careful analysis of this iron 

 has been very kindly made for me 

 by Mr. J. M. Davison, of the Rey- 

 nolds Laboratory of the University 

 of Rochester, and I give the same 

 below. 



ANALYSIS OF PLYMOUTH METEORITE. 



Fe 88-67 



Ni 8-55 



Co o - 66 



Cu C24 



P..-. : 1-25 



Graphite o-ii 



S 0-07 



99'55 



This iron, herein briefly noticed, 

 is interesting in many ways, and it 



