The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-03-27
OSTRICH FARMING.
Plucking the Valuable Feathers in Los
Angeles.
From the San Franciseo Chronicle


From the San Francisco Chronicle.
Los ANGELES, CAL, Feb. 13.-A pluck
at the Kenilworth ostrich farm having
been announced for Monday, Feb. II, 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 north
east of Los Angeles, occupies very pretty
valley at the foot of one of the coast ranges,
not far from the Burbank station, on the
Southern Pacific railroad.
The o,triches are )ntined in a number of
large corrals, in which the birds have free
room to run about, scoop out their prim-
tive 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 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 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
sufficient to coniine birds standing per-
haps 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 a 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 gettin &
in front Of them, for they can only kick
straight forward
When plucking is to begin three men en-
ter the corral and approach the birds. They
try to get the one they wish to catch up
into a corner, but as the bird sooa sees that
his best chance lies in keeping In the open,
he races first down one side of the corral,
then UP the other, making it appear as
though it were an almost hopeless task to
try and catch him. His strides are enor-
nous, but his great feet aud the muscles of
his thighs are 80 strong that he comes along
with a strangely easy, springy gait, In which
very little is seen of the foolish awkward
ness 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 wings, and the first time, perhaps,
finds himself sprawling on the ground, with
a handful of broken feathers to reward him
for his pains. Soon, however, somebody is
fortunate enough TO get good bold, and by
the time he has been dragged half way
round tho inclosure the other two men also
are TO be seen firmly attached to some part
Of the body or wings of the bird. Then
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
ciea ture into q corner # TIE 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 70 inclose the bird and his captors in a
snall corner, in which no great amount OF
struggling lspossible.
The first bird plucked was an old male.
The young biris for the first two years of
their life are all the same gray color, which
the females continue for tier lives; but the
males after they are about 2 years old, be-
come very handsome They turn quite
black, thus making a very handsome set
ting for the great white plumes which adorn
their wings and tails. As they approach
anyone who is looking for them their beau
tiful bright black breasts remind him
forcibly 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
singiy are of q dark brownish color, shad-
ing Off into something approaching very
near TO black at the tips. Occasionally,
but very rarely, a truly black feather is
found, but nearly all the black plumes and
tips sold III the stores are dyed. Only the
wing and tail feathers are pulled, the curly