The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-03-27

looking little TIPS on the breast, which
ar, use tue cupIdity of some of the ladies,
being left untouched.
The three men who have hold of the bird
10 GO hlm up tight against the corner OF the
lnclosure, and he one Of them who is doing
the piucking-in this case the proprietor
stands on the side away from the wing on
Wnlcn ne is going to commence operations.
ne raises the wing, and drawing it toward
MN over the body of the bird, he selects
the feathers which he considers mar
Setasle and grasping them. one, by
one firmly in his hand, gives them
a.. good hard pull and out they come.
FIRST the great white planes, then the
smaller whites and then the larger
piacks 1t must be a somewhat painful
| operation for the bird, as the feathers have
a light hold and the wing bleeds more or
less at most points from which several
feathers adjoining one another have been
drawn. Every now and then a renewed
struggle on the part of the ostrich and an
EFFORT, not always unsuccessful, to shake
| on the sack which is over his head,
bears witness to his not relishing the situa-
| ton.
AS fast as the feathers are pulled, and
TINS IS done very quickly, they are handed
| over the fence to man standing close by
with box. Then the ladies have their
chance. The amount of discussion which
| Is required before the onlookers can decide
which of the feathers is most worthy to he
| CHOSEN to remind them of the occasion is
surprising. First nothing less than one of
the great white plumes at the end of the
wing IS good enough, and as these are sell
ing to-day at from 81 to SO they are cheap
enough. But when looked at in the hand
It is found-surprising fact that the
feathers do not grow curled and washed
| and ready to be worn on hats, and
! presently a smaller feather Of white and
gray, prettily blended, is espied falling into
the box These vary in price from 25 cents
] co 5O cents, Or in the case of very fine ones
reacns$1 but just as the purchas is on the
point Of completion and the fair buyers
hand is searching among the small coins in
a lengthy purse for one of just the right
dimensions, she becomes aware that her
next neighbor has secured quite a pretty
little feather for 10 cents, really quite
good enough to keep as a memento.n And
so the struggle ends, and economy is
triumphant
Meanwhile the two wings have been
plucked, and the tail, which produces
feathers shorter than the best wing plumes
but much wider-such as are used for the
best tips. Then the sack is removed and
the board which incloses the party having
been swung back, the bird is set loose, a
queer, curtailed looking monster, shorn of
his glory, but probably in day or two
at any rate-for Icing freed from the
burden of his great, heavy plumes
Care has to be taken again, as the sack is
removed, that he does not reward his tor
mentors with kick, which, if we'll delv-
cred, would easily break bone; but his
inability to kick any way except straight
in front of him makes it no very difficult
matter.
Then the chase is renewed, and the royal
consort is, in her turn, Inundated by hav-
ing her proud head enveloped in the sack :;
and so the game goes on, till all the birds
which are ready for plucking have been
dealt with.
1t is very hard work on hot day, as not
only have great agility and considerable
courage and perseverance, to be displayed
in catching the birds, but even holding
them in the corner while the plucking is
gong on involves an almost continuous
struggle, more or less severe.
The operation takes about 20 min
utes for each bird after it has been
caught, and in this time some 200 to $50
feathers Of various sizes are pulled Each
bird is plucked twice year, the plumes re-
quiring growth of about seven months
to reach perfection. The feathers, if not
retailed on the premises or in Los Angeles
stores, are sold by weight A short time
ago they went as low as $50 a pound.
but they are now going up, the wearing
of ostrich features in hats having again
become fashionable. A full grown bird
will give rather more than a pound Of
feathers between his two plucks. but as
they are voracious feeders there is not much
profit to be made out of keeping them when
feathers are fetching low prices They are
fed mainly on alfalfa, supplemented by
corn and almost any vegetable food that
comes handy.