5 
The down feathers of the back and sides vary in colour from light to 
dark brown or nearly black, and the different colours being intermingled, 
give a characteristic mottled appearance to the chick, the black being 
arranged in stripes and patches along the neck and head. 
The natal feathers are not moulted in the ordinary manner of later 
feathers. A week or two after hatching they begin to be pushed out of 
the feather sockets by the chick feathers growing below, the first to be 
pushed being the down feathers along the sides of the hinder part of the 
body. Being very light, the down does not break off from the tip of the 
chick feather, but remains continuous until worn off. 
2. The Chick Plumage (Fig. 3).—The chick plumage is that which 
begins to appear soon after the chick is hatched, and is completed at the 
age of about eight months, that is, when the wing-quills (spadonas) are 
fully ripe. The chick feathers are distinguished by bearing at their tip 
the natal down, and the plumage as a whole is mottled in character. The 
Fig. 2.—Ostrich Chicks showing natal or birth plumage. The down feathers are hairy 
or bristly, light and dark patches being intermingled ; on the head and neck the dark 
feathers are arranged in bands or patches. At this stage, about one month, the chick 
feathers are beginning to push out the natal down. 
mottling, however, is not due to the intermingling of light and dark 
feathers, but to the fact that the upper part of each feather is light brown, 
while the lower part is of a dark grey colour; all the chick feathers also 
taper towards their tip in a spear-like manner, hence their name of 
spadona. 
The various kinds of feathers—body feathers, neck and head feathers. 
coverts, and wing-quills and tail-quills—now for the first time show those 
differences which are such a marked feature of the adult. Among the 
feathers of the chick plumage there is little or no sexual difference, nothing 
to indicate which are cocks or hens. To determine this, however, other 
characters are available. 
