The Arizona sentinel., 1889-06-01
HARVESTING FEATHERS.
The Way It Is Done at the Kenil-
worth Ostrich Farm.
1t is No Easy Task to Gather the Precious
Crop-SOme of the Dangers and
Difficulties Attending
the Operation.

A pluck at the hen1lWOrth ostrich
farm having been announced, a party
of visitors took the train from Los
Angeles for the scene of this unfamil-
lar form of harvesting. The ostrich
farm, which is situated about seven
miles northeast of Los Angeles, oc-
cupies very pretty valley at the foot
of one of the coast ranges. not far
from the Burbank station, on the
Southern Pacific railroad.
The ostriches are confined in a num-
Der of large corrals, in which the birds
have free room to run about, scoop out
their primitive nests, and make them
selves 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 California, which appear to
be quite as healthy and promise to be
as fine as their African parents.
Plucking the birds is by no means a
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 ordinary
post and rail fence five feet high is
sufficient to confne 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 can not fly
they can run and kick, and kick from
one of their great strong legs is an ex-
pertinent 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 in keeping in the open, he races
first 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
muscles of his thighs are so strong
that he comes along with a strangely
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 quiet vain attempts to
reach the bird as he runs past, the
quickest of the men throws himself up
on one of the huge wings, and the first
time. perhaps, finds himself sprawling
on the ground, with handful of broken
feathers to reward him for his pains.
Soon, however, somebody is fortunate
enough to get a good hold, and by the
time he has been dragged half way
round the inclosure 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 strengthening creature into
a 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 a way as to inclose the bird
and his captors in a small corner, in
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 two years old, become
very handsome. They turn quite
black, thus making very handsome
setting for the great white plumes
which adorn their wings and tails.
As they approach any one who is look
ing at them their beautiful bright
black breasts remind him forciblv of
funeral plumes But when the black
feathers come to be plucked they are
found to be only black at the tips, and
even here they seldom reach perfect
blackness, except in the mass. The
feathers singly are of dark brownish
color, shading of into something ap-
preaching very near to black at the