716 MR. G. H. GURNEY ON NATURAL HISTORY 
killed here, and it was unsafe at night to go five yards from 
one’s tent without a lantern and a loaded rifle. A friend of 
mine had an Ostrich Farm here and I stayed for three weeks 
with him, pitching my tents alongside his little two-roomed 
tin house, and it was quite a relief to be able for the first time 
since I had been in Africa, to unpack all my things and feel 
I had a permanent camp for awhile, as we had never before 
been in one camp for more than two or three days at a time 1 
and I was able here to do a lot of really good collecting, specially 
of birds. When I talk of an Ostrich farm, put away from your 
minds all ideas of an English farm as we know them in Norfolk, 
with nice stacks of hay, and large barns and premises ; an 
Ostrich farm in British East Africa is probably situated miles 
from any habitation, and often simply consists of the settler’s 
shanty and an enclosure for his birds ; but of all farming, 
I am sure Ostrich farming is the most interesting and I was 
very glad at Theki to have the opportunity of seeing my 
friend’s Ostriches. When I was there, there were some 130 
birds on the farm, and it was a most curious sight to see them 
go off at sunrise every morning, in two parties each under the 
charge of a black boy, to remain out on the plains until sun- 
down, much in the same way as we send a flock of sheep out 
on to a common to graze. At night they return and walk 
quietly into the bonga or enclosure, where they are protected 
from Lions and Hyaenas, by high corrugated iron fences. 
As every one knows, the Ostriches are farmed for the sake 
of their feathers ; they are clipped twice a year, the feathers 
are never pulled ; and six weeks after each clipping the dead 
stumps are drawn out, which ensures the new crop coming on 
uniformly, and earlier than if the stumps were left in ; the 
chicks are first clipped at about nine months old. Eggs from 
wild birds are found and put into Incubators, and wild chicks 
are also caught and reared ; though on many farms there are 
breeding paddocks and the pair of old birds are allowed to 
incubate and rear their own eggs. The finest feathers are 
yielded when the bird is between two and seven years old, 
and the most valuable are the white primaries of the male, 
these fetch about £y per lb. If an East African Ostrich 
