10 
G.—Tue ADVANTAGES OF SIMULTANEOUS QUILLING. 
The drawing of the quills of the ostrich feather by the farmer really 
implies subjecting the bird to an artificial moult in advance of its natural 
time. It is performing what Nature herself would accomplish, though in 
a much more leisurely manner. The life of a feather is as follows: —In 
all birds a new feather, nourished by a rich supply of blood, first appears. 
beyond the follicle; it increases in length and the flue opens out, and ulti- 
mately it attains its ful! size. The quill within the socket then ripens 
and, the feather as a whole being fully formed, the nutritive blood stream 
is withdrawn from the medulla. The mature feather remains on the body 
for a time, often becoming faded, old and worn, and is ultimately pushed. 
out or moulted by the growth of a new feather below it. The length of 
{ime during which a fully grown feather will remain on the bird without 
moulting varies greatly, being largely dependent upon the situation of the 
feather and the nutritive state of the bird. 
In the ostrich there is no well-defined season of moult. At no time 
are more than a few feathers being pushed out by the new growth, and the: 
passage from one well-defined plumage to another, as from the chick to 
the juvenal, or from the juvenal to the adult, is very gradual, and takes. 
place in different birds at different ages. It is this irregular continuous. 
moulling which renders it practically impossible to farm ostriches by re- 
lying upon the natural moult alone. The commercial feathers on any bird. 
would be at very different stages of growth and need separate attention, 
while the quantity of feathers produced would be much smaller owing ta 
the length of time which in nature a ripe quill will remain within its. 
socket. 
The advantages, therefore, of artificially pulling all the quills at one 
time are that all the commercial feathers are growing at the same stage, 
and consequently all come to ripeness together and so facilitate farming 
methods; also many more feathers are being produced at the same period, 
thereby giving a neavier and more remunerative yield. In addition ex- 
perience proves that when the feathers are all growing together they are 
more symmetrical in shape from their mutual protection, and are much 
less likely to be defective. 
A comparison may be instituted between the feathers of a wild ostrich 
subject only to the natural moult and those of the domesticated bird with 
its artificial moult. Feathers are occasionally obtained from wild birds 
which are longer and stronger than any produced by the domesticated 
ostrich, but as a rule they are much inferior and are almost as liable to 
have barring defects. Any superiority in the feathers of wild birds is not 
of such a character as to encourage the farmer to adopt the natural method 
of moulting. There appears to be a decided advantage as regards shape- 
and freedom from defects in having all the feathers growing simultaneous- 
ly, and, as I have shown, this may be physiologically understood by the: 
fuller and more uniform stream of nutritive blood which is produced from 
the greater drain upon it. Probably all are prepared to admit that there: 
has been a vast improvement in the feather of the domesticated bird com- 
pared with that of the wild bird, due largely to artificial selection in 
breeding, and it is not unlikely that there is an unconscious selection going’ 
on in the direction of birds which produce their best feathers when grow-. 
ing them simultancously. 
Where carefully performed the drawing of a ripe quill is not injurious: 
to the bird and apparently not to the socket nor to the subsequent new 
feather. If performed too frequently, so as to unnaturally force the: 
feather growth, the feathers are found to deteriorate in quality. Experi-. 
