EXPERIMENTS WITH OSTRICHES. 
VII.—TIME OF QUILLING. 
By Professor J. E. Durrpren, Rhodes University College, Grahamstown. 
The time of the year at which to quill his ostriches is a matter of much 
concern to the farmer. In connection with it a number of considerations 
have to be taken into account, such as the age of the bird, its nutritive 
state, and the climatic conditions. The time selected may determine 
whether the succeeding crop of feathers will be the best the bird is capable 
of producing or one greatly inferior in value. 
A.—THE First QUILLING. 
There is no uncertainty as to the time at which the first quilling must 
take place if, as is always the case, it is desired to keep the later feather 
growth even. The wing plumes (spadonas) are always ready for clipping 
when the chicks are about six months old, and, under ordinary conditions, 
the quills left in the follicles or sockets are ripe two months later. The 
first quills are therefore drawn when the chicks are about eight months 
old. By this time the blood has practically receded from the quill, and 
the pith or medullary space is dry and occupied by air. When drawn at 
this stage the quills are usually not narrowed off at the base, but for a 
quarter of an inch or less the tip is still unhardened, and contains a little 
of the soft medulla, which is, however, practically bloodless. This is the 
stage which the farmer most desires to secure. If the quills are drawn 
earlier, say with half an inch still soft and containing blood, then the 
operation gives rise to hemorrhage and, as a result of experience, it is 
found that the subsequent feather is not likely to be well grown; if the 
quills are left somewhat longer, say until the tip is narrowed and the pith 
altogether dried up, then the later growth does not commence so readily 
or uniformly, and some of the new feathers may be about to push out. 
Should the artificial drawing of the first quills not take place at or 
about eight months then irregularities of feather growth are introduced 
which may lead to considerable trouble afterwards. It is found that the 
feather germs of some of the second or juvenal feathers commence active 
growth as soon as the chick quills are ripened, and then begin to push 
out the old spadona quills. Only certain of these germs, however, start 
their growth, others remain dormant for a long period, may be several 
months. Thus where artificial quilling is not practised irregularities are 
at once introduced, scme juvenal feathers are growing while others are 
dormant. Should the farmer neglect to pull the spadona quills until the 
chicks are nine months old it will even then be found that the tip of some 
of the old quills has already a portion of the new feather attached to it, 
and this is torn away in the drawing of the quill. When this happens the 
later feather, having had its apical portion detached, is nearly always de 
fective. 
