414 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
hornets have, but they have an apparatus for pierc¬ 
ing holes in tender twigs, in which to place their 
eggs, and it may be that in careless handling, 
wounds may be made by these; but the cases of 
stinging that have been examined, have proved to 
be due to the Giant Wasp, which catches and stings 
the Harvest-Fly, and takes it to its nest to furnish 
food for its young, and the stings that are thought 
to be made by the Cicada are in reality done by 
this wasp, which drops its prey, and that gets 
the undeserved credit of doing the mischief. 
A Cii’oitp of 4>sari<*H C’liitGcs. 
“What new breed of fowls is this?” you may 
ask, on seeing this picture. It is not a new breed, 
but the young of a very old breed. Old ! I should 
say so, for you can learn much about the Ostrich in 
the 39th chapter of the Book of Job. You have no 
doubt read about, and seen pictures of, the full 
grown Ostrich, and it may be have seen the bird 
itself in some of the menageries. An Ostrich in a 
show is rather a forlorn looking creature. It is 
pretty sure to show great patches of naked skin, 
where you may think there ought to be feathers. 
In the “ Garden of Acclimatation,” in Paris, France, 
there is an enormous ostrich hitched to a kind of 
sulky, and boys and girls, for a small fee, can take 
a drive behind an Ostrich. The Doctor tells me, 
when he saw this team about a year ago, the bird 
looked big enough and strong enough, to draw a 
vehicle several times as large ; but he said there 
was so much bare, reddish, rough skin, that he 
wanted to take the poor thing out of the shafts and 
nurse it until the feathers grew. A number of years 
ago, it would have been difficult to haven given you 
a picture of Baby Ostriches, as in the wild state the 
young are hatched and reared in places seldom 
visited by “Our Artist.” But now the birds are 
reared in captivity, and “ Ostrich Farming ” has 
become an important business in Southern Africa. 
This reminds me that all of you may not know 
about the Ostrich, and before saying more about our 
chicks, it may be well to tell you something about 
the old cocks and hens. The largest of all living 
birds is the African Ostrich. You observe that I 
am careful to speak of living birds. There are found 
in New Zealand the bones of a bird, the Dinomis ; it 
has not been seen alive, but it must have been very 
much larger than the Ostrich, which stands seven 
or eight feer. high, and weighs 100 to 200 pounds. 
And what legs the bird has ! you can see by the 
youngster standing up in the picture the beginnings 
of these legs. The Ostrich, while having such 
ample legs, has only two toes. I have never seen 
one without feeling that its feet had been some 
how whittled down, and that the big bird needed 
more base to stand upon. But having such legs, 
they can use them if need be ; when frightened, 
it is said that the Ostrich makes a stride of about 
12 feet at each step ! The head and neck of the 
bird are mostly naked, and the feathers upon the 
body are very loose, and give one the impression 
that it is about to moult, though this looseness of 
feathers is just what is needed in the hot climate of 
Africa ; the body is shaded, and the feathers being 
loose, allow of ventilation. What the Ostrich has 
in legs, it lacks in wings, which are ridiculously 
small for so large a bird, (so small that it does not 
attempt to fly), though it is said that it makes use 
of its wings to aid in running; we are told that on 
a “spurt” it can make 60 miles an hour, though 
its average speed, when running, is only about 25 
miles an hour. The general plumage of the Ostrich 
is black, and some of it is so coarse that it is more 
like hair than feathers. On each wing are 24, and 
in the tail are several other pure white and graceful 
feathers, known especially as “Ostrich Feathers.” 
These have the plume part, unlike mo'st other feath¬ 
ers, equally large on each side of the quill, and the 
parts of the plume are not locked together, but each 
is separate and curves in the most graceful manner. 
It is for these feathers that the birds have long 
been hunted; they are chased on horseback, and 
caught with a lasso, or a native, clothing himself in 
an ostrich skin, can get near enough to shoot them. 
The value of the feathers, which for the finest is 
about five dollars each, and half that for the poorer 
ones, has led people in South Africa to tame and 
keep the birds in confinement, and “ Ostrich Farm¬ 
ing” is now a very profitable business. In the 
wild state the bird does not, as some accounts 
state, leave the eggs to be hatched by the sun. 
The eggs are laid in a large shallow nest in the 
sand, to the number sometimes of 40 or 50, several 
birds helping to fill the nest, and they are set 
upon at night by both male and female birds. 
Curious creatures these young Ostrich chicks are, 
as the picture shows you. Did you ever see an Os¬ 
trich Egg ? In old times, when we had more ships 
and fewer steamers, ostrich-eggs and porcupine- 
quills were very common in seaport towns, as the 
sailors often brought them home from their long 
voyages as presents to their friends. The shell of 
an ostrich’s egg will hold as much as two dozen of 
hen’s eggs, and it is thick in proportion to its size. 
While Europeans do not relish the eggs, as they 
are very strong, the Africans prize them much as 
food. They have in the egg not only something to 
eat, but something to cook it in. They make an 
opening in one end of the 
shell, which is then placed 
over the coals ; a stick put 
through the hole allows the 
contents to be stirred while 
the cooking is going on. 
The shells are useful for 
various purposes, especi¬ 
ally for carrying water, and 
they' may be cut to form 
dishes of various sizes and 
shapes. The little chicks, 
like those in the picture, 
are eaten, and are said 
to be “about as good as 
a very tough turkey,” but 
the full-grown Ostrich is 
said to be quite too tough 
for even the Africans. 
The Ostrich is easily tamed, 
and on the ostrich farms 
gives but little trouble. 
It it said that those who 
raise the birds, find it 
surer and more profitable 
to hatch the eggs artifici¬ 
ally, by means of an in¬ 
cubator, than to trust the 
birds to do it. I wonder 
how the chicks in the pic¬ 
ture were hatched ; two of 
them look as if they were 
thinking of something, 
while the other evidently 
doesn’t care how he came, 
but looks as if he would 
like to know “ what next.” 
His “ next,” or future, 
will probably be to be 
put into a large pen, with 
about 20 others ; if the en¬ 
closure does not give food enough, he may get a 
little grain ; he will feed upon almost any green 
thing he can find, and will pick up large gravel- 
stones to help his gizzard grind his food. When 
18 months old, he will be expected to pay for his 
board, which he must do in feathers, pulled from 
the wings and tail. If the first crop brings the 
owner $30 to $50, he will be regarded as a promis¬ 
ing young bird, and likely to pay better in future. 
You will wash to know what becomes of the feath¬ 
ers The finer kinds are used for ladies’ head¬ 
dresses ; the coarser and poorer ones, dyed black, 
are used mainly for show at funerals, where it is 
the custom to make a display of these on the 
hearse and on the horses that draw it. This show 
at funerals is more common in Europe, though 
sometimes seen in this country. It is stated that 
the ostrich feathers for a first-class funeral, are 
worth from $1,000 to $1,500, and as few under¬ 
takers can afford to keep such costly decorations, 
they are hired by them for the occasion. The use 
of ostrich feathers in dressing the head, is much 
more common in England than here. Custom, no 
doubt, has something to do with this, but so has 
the fact that the “crest,” or “badge,” of the 
Prince of Wales is three white ostrich feathers. It 
is a curious fact, that the old Egyptian sculptures 
show that ostrich feathers were used for ornament 
long before the Christian Era. Perhaps that may 
be what the two meditative ostrich chicks in the 
picture are thinking about. Uncle Hal. 
