The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-02-21
ogTRIcHEs ARE QUEER BIRDS.
The Morning Danoe-Eighty Years of
 Conjugal Fidelity.

l 1itIe are tIlIG6 uSlilCn ld4lllS III souther California, one in Arazona, one in Kansas and one in Florida; and there are not less than six thousand of the gigantic birds in this country growing plumes for my lady's head gear.
 The original ostrich farm in South Pasadena is annually visited by thou sands of tourists. The big birds are kept in fields enclosed with high fen ces. They appear to be as tame as do- nestle fowls, but it is not safe for strangers to take too much for grant, ed, as the male bird is often ill tenn pered and is kick is worse than that of a mule.
 Early morning visitors witness the most interesting performance of the birds, the matin waltz. When the suns first rays strike across the field, says Rosary Magazine, the birds take their morning exercise to stretch their mus cles and banish the chill of the night.
 The larger one begin the perform ance with slow, stately dance, something like a minuet. Presently the whole flock joins in the measure, stepping high and weaving in and out in what seems to be a set though com plicated figure.
 As the dance proceeds the speed of the movement increases; then the birds begin to whirl about presently the quadrille merges into a waltz. The dancers, holding their heads high, raise their wings and spread their plumes in the sunshine, and in pairs waltz solemnly, strenuously for a quarter of an hour.
 View from a distance, a band of waltzing ostriches-when the birds are in full feather-is beautiful picture. At close range the preternatural grav- ity of the bird engaged in the seeming ly frivolous pastime of the waltz makes him an irresistibly comic figure.
 ostrich farms are most attractive to visitors at plucking time, once in nine months. To one never having witness ed the operation it seems quite a for mldable task to capture and hold q thre hundred and fifty pound bird and relieve 1t of its plumage.
 But the farmer has devised a way that makes 1t a very simple process. Selecting bird whose plumes are ready to pluck, he is enticed with su gar beets into triangular enclosure, thence to the narrow end, and there imprisoned with bars
 The ostrich is enraged when he finds that he is imprisoned, but in a mo- ment his head Is enveoped in sack, and being blinded, be becomes quiet and submissive. The plucking is pain less
 Only the smaller feathers are pulled as the feathers are pluclled from geese, The larger plpmes are cut with care to preserve the sockets of the quill from injury
 Natural white or pure black plumes require only washing and curling, but most of the plumes are gray and must | be dyed for the market. Tne raw : feathers are scld in San Francisco and l New York where the yare prepared for the trade by being washed, dyed 2 startched, curled and pieced. The os-
 trich plume ofr q lady's hat Is no more s like the feather as worn by the bird l than sealskin jacket Is like the na- 1 tural fur of his original wearer, t When the ostrich is three or four n years old he chooses q mate for life
 The usual span of ostrich life is about ! eighty years It will be seen, therefore h that this singular bird is model of
 homogeneous fidelity.
 :. Also, he Is q model husband, for he : does more than half of the family - work The male partner makes the . nest by kicking hole in the ground - foot deep and three feet across, an 0 when the twelve or fifteen eggs arc q laid, he takes his turn at matching s dividing the time with his partner 1T : even watches,
 e Forty days are required to latch tho
 eggs, which are in proportion to the q size of the bird. When the chick; s come out the cock must be sequester. n ed, for in captivity he develops a re. n prehensible propensity to infanticide |. forgetting all the trouble he has talk. ;" en to hatch out a family, | Often there is a surplus of eggs or the ostrich farm, and hotels in tht - vicinity are supplied with the mater. e al for omelets as fancy prices. Curios f ity induces tourists to pay those IT prices and they have been known tc - affirm liking for ostrich egg omeets if The shell of an ostrich egg is SC s thick that even the hard kicking cocl e bird could use one as a football with a out damaging it.
 = The experience of California ostricl ,r farmers is that about thirty per cent ; of the eggs deposited in the nest art a not fertile. Several days after tho Il matching process has begun the egg. are tested by placing them, one at :
 time, in funnel and raising it to- a ward the sun.
 6 If a dark spot shows in the eggs i l. is probably fertile. If not it is throwr = out of the clutch, The incubator ha! been successfully used after the egg! = have bsen a couple of weeks under
 the birds. In about six weeks tht ,s baby ostrich may be heard insid, if the shell, and then 1t is in order tt = crack the horny case and let the littl I, chap out into the air.