140 
A COLONY IN THE MAKING 
CHAP. 
hardness and firmness of the flue, these qualities being 
desirable from the point of view of the trade. Soft 
living and luxury have induced softness and woolliness 
of flue, and to restore the original quality some of the 
best breeders in South Africa are desiring a re-intro¬ 
duction of wild blood and are turning their eyes 
towards the wild stock of British East Africa. 
Now these statements, made with so great authority 
and in so convincing a manner, must be a source of 
the utmost gratification to all ostrich breeders in the 
Protectorate. It is universally admitted by those who 
have had an opportunity of judging that our wild 
birds are superior both in size and feather to those of 
South Africa. If, therefore, we choose or are forced 
to start at the bottom and evolve our breed of 
ostriches by selection from the local stock solely, we 
shall in all probability, in the course of ten, fifteen, 
or twenty years, produce a sample which the south 
cannot match. One thing seems fairly obvious. 
South African breeders have already approached us 
with a view to obtaining cock birds. Unless they are 
prepared to treat us in the fairest and most reciprocal 
manner by exchanging breeding birds of the highest 
quality that they have evolved, we should be ex¬ 
tremely chary of parting with our tangible asset. 
In the meanwhile, progress is steady, and it need 
not be thought, because the prices obtained by 
our feathers are at present comparatively small, that 
even these prices are such as will not pay the settler 
who, starting from the beginning, determines to make 
ostrich-breeding his staple industry. On the contrary, 
there is no reason whatever why a settler starting with 
a capital of £Soo or even lower should not find him¬ 
self at the end of five years with an income as large as 
