San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-05-15
AT AN OSTRICH FARM.
PLUcKINe A CROP OF FINE FEATH-
ERS FROM THE BIG BIRDS.

Plumes-A Visit to q California Corral.
1t Takes Three Men to Handle One Os-
trich-The Kick in Front.
A pluck at the Kenilworth ostrich farm
having been announced, a party of visitors
took the train from Los Angeles for the
scene of this unfamiliar form of harvesting.
The ostrich farm. which is situated about
seven miles northeast of Los Angeles, occu-
pies a very pretty valley at the foot of one
Of the coast ranges, not far from the Bur-
bank station, on the Southern Pacific rail-
| road.
The ostriches are confined in a number Of
large corrals, in which the birds have free
| room to run about, scoop out their primitive
nests and make themselves generally quite at
home. Four of these corrals are occupied by
pairs of full grown imported birds, at the
present time occupied in laying eggs. In
other corrals are young birds, natives of Cal
| nornia, which appear to be quite as healthy
and promise to be as fine as their African pa
rents.
AN EXCELLENT RUNNER
Plucking the birds is by no means light
undertaking The one thing which makes
| ostriches manageable at all is that they can
| not either fly or leap, or if they can they are
| not aware of their powers. Hence an ordi-
nary post and rail fence five feet high is suf-
| ticent to contine birds standing, perhaps,
seven feet high, even when they are making
the most desperate efforts to escape from the
hands of their spoilers But if they cannot
fly they can run and kick, and kick from
one of their great strong legs is an experience
which nobody cares to try. Thus in catching
them it is always necessary carefully to avoid
getting in front of them, for they can only
kick straight forward.
When plucking is to begin three men enter
the corral and approach the birds They try
to get the one they wish to catch up into a
corner, but as the bird soon sees that his best
chance lies Ill keeping in the open, he races
down one side of the corral and then up. the
other, making it appear as though it were an
almost hopeless task to catch him. His strides
are enormous, but his great feet and the mus
cles of his thighs are so strong that he comes
along with an easy, springy gait, in which
very little is seen of the foolish awkwardness
which is the first characteristic to strike
strangers when they see the bird at rest.
After several quite vain attempts to reach
the bird as he runs past, the quickest of the
men throws himself upon one of the huge
self sprawling on the ground with a handful
of broken feathers to reward him for his
pains. Soon, however, somebody is fortu-
nate enough to get good hold and by the
time he has been dragged half way round the
Enclosure the other two men also are to be
seen firmly attached to some part of the body
or wings Of the bird. Then a sack is rapidly
produced from the belt of one of the men and
slipped over the head and long neck, at the
lower end Of which it is loosely tied. This
greatly facilitates matters, and it is now no
very difficult job TO steer the strange looking
creature into corner of the corral which has
been prepared for its reception, Here the
fence has been strengthened with strong deal
boards, and another heavy board is all ready
to be swung around in such way as to in
close the bird and his captors in small cor
,,r,. a.: a. which no great amount of struggling
is possible.
The first bird plucked was an old male.
The young birds for the first two years of
their life are all the same gray color, which
the females continue for their lives, but the
males, after they are about 9 years old, be-
come very handsome. They turn quite black,
thus making a very handsome setting for the
great white plumes which adorn their wings
and tails Only the wing and tail feathers
are pulled, the curly looking little tips on the
breast which arouse the cupidity of some of
the ladies being left untouched.
The three men who have hold of the bird
force him up tight against the corner of the
inclosure and the one Of them who is doing
the plucking stands on the side away from
the wing on which he is going to commence
operations. He raises the wing, and, draw
ing it toward him over the body of the bird,
he selects the feathers which he considers
marketable, and grasping them one by one
firmly in his hand gives them good hard
pull and out they comc-first the great white
plumes, then the smaller whites, and then the
larger blacks.
1t must be a somewhat painful operation
for the bird, as the feathers have tight 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 unsuc-
ccssful, to shake off the sack which is over
his head bears witness to his not relishing
the situation.
THE VALUE OF A CROP.
As fast as the feathers are pulled, and this
Is zone very quickly, tney are nanued over
the fence to a man standing close by with a
box
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 mon
ste", shorn of his glory, but probably in a
day or two much more comfortable-in hot
weather at any rate-for being freed from