Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-13

animal nature compared with the ingenuity
OF man. California breeders drive and dis
cipline their stock with the aid of small
dogs. An ostrich will walk up to a man or
an elephant CT street sprinkler and show
fight, but he runs from little dog. His
back may be up in high c. but the ostrich
can't hit that 1t Is amusing to see a giant
bird, feet high. fleeing in fright from
lit of rat terrier.
There are many patches on the fences
around the ostrich corrals, and when one
of the eat birds feels kinky and has
nothing better to do, he lets go at the
fence and one blow snaps sx-inch rail
as IL it were a lath. man who was
whitewashing the fences last week took
certain liberties with an ostrich named
"Corbett.'' and he is now nursing three
broken ribs. The male birds frequently
quarrel, sometimes fatally, and when one
hits another it sounds like a whack on a
brass drum. If the fight Is discovered in
time. the dogs are sent in to separate the
combatants.
How nm Ostrich Is Plucked.
But let us see what the FUCKERS are
doing to our interesting friend Of magnifi-
cent plumes. Wedged into that narrow
cage. he can't hurt us if he is disposed to-
but like the operators. We take pains to
stand behind him. A man with a Short
heavy pair of shears is cutting the long
black and white feathers from the birds
wings. The quilts cut crisply. They are
iiPt anu tNeTe IS not a d. OF DlOOQ or sen
silver ess in them" says the manager. IF
we did not wait till they were ripe before
clipping them, the feathers would not grow
again and the bird would be worthless" A
stump four inches long is left by the
shears. Two months later this will be
pulled out to make room for the new
feather. which will be ripe for the har
vester in about nine months. The breed
ers get two crops in year and half.
After the shears have doEe their work.
the tail feathers are pulled and the smaller
feathers are plucked from the outside of
the wings. The body feathers are never
intermediary to the popular conception,
which assumes that the poor bird is left
stark. When do you kill your ostriches?''
is query often heard at the farm. By
this time the sack has been removed from
the neck of the bird, the gate at the apex
OF his corral has been opened. and away
he scoots, gobbing and Tapping his wings.
One clipping from good lusty ostrich
like this is worth $50, and every feather
has commercial value. There never yet
mas been an overproduction of ostrich
tips, and they are in greater demand to-
day by fashion than ever Hence the os-
trich Is well kept and carefully watched.
Every sixty days his quilts examined.
He has frequent ablutions. If he is sick
he has doctor, who generally gives him
the same kind of pill he had before-a
bolus two inches long and an inch square
in a linen case. They push it down his
yard of throat, without any fuss on the
ostrich's part. and soon the bird Is well
again. The veterinarian tells me that the
dose for an ostrich is twice as large as
for horse.
The ostrich has many amiable qualities
and cons iderable human nature. 1t is no
more than his due to say that he is model
husband. He may have his little imper-
fections and idiosyncrasies, but as a hus-
band he Is above reproach. No bird pays
so many polite attentions to his mate Be-
sides scratching out the hole in the ground
which serves for her nest and assisting in
he rNf
turns with her in sitting on the eggs till
they hatch. and the longer turns at that
Model Husband.
The female. when she starts in. lays
an egg every other day until she has pro-
duced dozen or fifteen. then stops and sits
on them for forty-two days and nights
with her husbands help. 1t would be a
pretty long siege without his aid He sits
from m. till am on schedule time
and without falkland he spells her
some during the day, too" says the man