KEYIEWS. 
75 
to Sparcnann, many of the farmers “ had a number of tame ostriches on 
their farms, which were allowed to feed at large, and which supplied their 
owners with plumes, which were made into brooms and helped to drive 
away the mosquitoes.” These early attempts at the domestication of the 
ostrich were comparatively insignificant. The supply of feathers was 
chiefly obtained from the wild birds, and, in consequence of their increasing 
scarcity in easily accessible localities, the price of the commodity became 
very high. Towards the year 1870, however, the attention of South 
African farmers was directed to the advantages of keeping ostriches as 
domestic birds ; and it is to the increasing adoption of this practice that we 
must ascribe the enormous increase that has taken place since 1870 in the 
quantity of feathers exported from that part of the world. In 1865, it 
appears there were only 80 tame birds in the Cape Colony, whilst in 1875 
the census returns showed the existence of no fewer than 32,217. The 
feathers obtained from the tame birds are stifler and less valuable than 
u wild feathers,” but nevertheless this new industry must be a most pro- 
ductive one, if we may judge from the experience of Mr. W. Kinnear, of 
Beaufort West, who in 1870 had twent} r -nine ostriches on eight acres of 
garden-ground, fourteen being in immature plumage. “ For three pluckings 
of fifteen of them, at intervals of eight months, he received the sum of 
240/., which is at the rate of 120/. a year, or 8/. per bird.” It must be re- 
marked that in 1870 the price of the feathers was unusually low, and that 
the space occupied by these twenty-nine birds was estimated to be sufficient 
for three times the number. 
We have devoted so much space to the commercial side of the subject 
partly because it may interest many of our readers to know the extent and 
importance of the trade in ostrich feathers, but mainly because it is to the 
curiosity excited by the display of a large collection of feathers at the 
Vienna Exhibition of 1873 that we are indebted for the admirable work on 
the Ostriches by MM. de Mosenthal and Ilarting. The practical part of the 
subject is treated by the former gentleman, who describes the earlier at- 
tempts at the domestication of the ostrich, notices the endeavours that have 
been made to introduce ostrich-farming into other colonies, especially in Aus- 
tralia ; gives full details as to the progress of the industry in Africa, where 
it has even advanced so far as the adoption of incubators, and 11 artificial 
mothers” for hatching and rearing the young; and furnishes most inte- 
resting particulars connected with the trade in ostrich feathers. As a con- 
tribution to economical zoology, Mr. de Mosenthal’s share of this book is 
most interesting and valuable. 
We think it was Sir Richard Steele who, in speaking of his starting the 
“ Spectator,” and calling in the assistance of his friend Addison, described 
himself as being in the position of some small prince who had been aided 
by a big one, and found himself in the end of little consideration by the side 
of his ally. We fancy that Mr. de Mosenthal might say something of the 
same kind. Reading between the lines of the preface, it seems pretty clear 
that that gentleman, who, as Commissioner for the South African Colonies, 
exhibited the collection of ostrich-feathers at Vienna, having determined on 
publishing a short account of the new industry, thought it desirable to 
prefix to his treatise an account of the natural history of the ostrich, and 
