Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-08-02
AN EeYPTlAN OSTRICH FARM.
a business for the Dsse.tEsss Hasehos

Heliopolis, in Egypt, is an ostrich farm
No tree or green thing is near-noth-
ing but a sandy desert. through which
we rode on donkey back because the
sand is deep and hot and fatiguing to
the feet.
The farm is just piece of the desert
IN the shape of a circle inclosed by a
high wall A young man, who wore
yellow gown and red cap and spoke
French, came from courtway to sell
US tickets and show US round.
We found that in the middle of the
great circle there was a smaller one,
and that between the two, divided from
one another by brick walls, were the
yards where the ostriches lived. Each
yard had its little brook of muddy
water and its corner for food-fresh
clover.
The rest was an expanse of sand large
enough for the birds to have a race when
ever they chose to exercise their long
legs They came running to the gates &c
look at us, and snapped at our fingers
rather Grossly, we thought, when we
ventured to put hand through the
bars.
Those in the first yard were ten years
old. They were SO very large, their
plumes SO black and glossy, and their
necks, which were covered with white
hairs, were SO brilliantly red that we
concluded they must be extremely
grand and handsome for ostriches; we
could not help thinking them ugly
compared with other birds.
Their long neclzs are bare of feathers;
their eyes are too large and staring to
be pretty, and as for their feet, they
haven't three nicely shaped front claws
like Nine. Biddy at home, but instead
two thick, clumsy toes-a big and
little one. When they ran they seemed
to pitch forward on their awkward
legs. So, on the whole, we could not
call them graceful.
But then, we did not see them at
their best. They were not born to be
cooped up in a yard and stared at by
strangers standing close beside them
They are birds of the desert, and should
be seen in the home they love, skim
ming along the glossy sands with the
swiftness and lightness of air, their
long plumes waving in the breeze.
Then they are fine.
1t is the same with the camel.
Viewed closely he is the ugliest crea-
ture in the world, but when you see
him from distance, as, laden with
sugar cane, he traverseS the green
fields on the Nile delta, or when you
watch him as he rushes into Assouan
bearing his rider upon his back, then
you find that he really makes a pretty
picture, simply because you see him
where he belongs.
Not all the ostriches were black.
Some were gray, with necks of like
color. These were the females, and
we thought their necks prettier than
their brothers, because of the softer eff
feet of the same coloring of hair and
skin.
After looking into several yards &C.
cupied by the full-grOwn birds. we
made the acquaintance of the younger
members of the family. Those which
were six months old had no curly
plumes, and the males and females
were dressed quite alike in straight
feathers, a mixture of brown and mud
dy white.
They looked awkward and shy.
Those only six weeks old were pref
tier; for their legs and necks were
shorter and the nechs were covered
with down in stripes of dark and light.
But the really cunning ones had
picked their way out of the shell only
five days before we saw them. About
as large as small geese, they were all
downy and soft and speckled, and had
upon their chubby necks the same
pretty stripes as those a little older.
At our appearance they huddled to-
gether at a safe distance, just as little
folks do when a stranger comes, and
looked at US with wondering eyes.
Al h. H.
two different methods. By the natural
way the birds sit on them as they lie
in the sand, just as the hen does her
eggs, only, with the ostrich, it is the
male bird who sits upon them. The
mamma only relieves him now and
then. Some of these eggs we saw in a
corner of one of the yards. The bird
had left them for a moment.
The other way is to keep them in
boxes heated by warm water. They
are kept in a warm room, into which
we went after we had seen the birds,
and we were shown the boxes, each
with thermometer in its water tank.
Then we were taken to another room,
where feathers and eggs were offered
for sale. We wanted very much to
bring an egg away with US, but we
did not know how to get it safely home.
Do you know an ostrich egg? A lit
tie rounder than a hens egg, creamy
white, and as large-well, about as
large as the head of your baby sister.
Lastly we mounted a stairway, which
led us to the top of the farm house.
Thence-for it stands within the inner
circle of the wall-we could look over
the farm about US; then upon the desert
and Heliopolis, and farther still to
where the minaretS of Cairo stood out
against the western sky.
The sun had sunk to rest, and the
wonderful Egyptian afterglow had
come. 1t is a living light of gold and
orange, sometimes deepening into red,
which comes, you don't know from
where, fingers a little and vanishes as
mysterious as it appears.
Against it on this evening, as it
elowed and burned in the west, we
saw the domes and the slender minarets
of Cairo, dark and clear, each line as
distinct as if cut out with the sharpest
penknife. Even as we looked the
radiance faded and gave place to a
pale gray, in which all outlines were
lost