OSTRICHES
The ostrich is unlike other birds in many important characters. It is
not a typical bird. While it has feathers and wings, its feathering is
not normal, and the muscles of the wings are lacking. In the minds of
most persons it is associated with the circus menagerie rather than with
the poultry yard, but, as we shall see, this singular bird has a place
in domestication and, as a useful land bird, belongs to the poultry
group. There are two species of ostriches, but only one of these is of
economic value.
=Description.= The ostrich is the largest of living birds. A full-grown
male standing erect measures from six to seven feet in height. The
largest specimens weigh about three hundred pounds. As, in the
atmosphere which now surrounds the earth, a creature of such size and
weight cannot fly at all, the wings of the ostrich have become
atrophied, and the muscles of the wings, which form the plump, meaty
breasts of flying birds, are entirely wanting. Not only have these
muscles disappeared, but the breastbone, which in flying birds is very
large in proportion to the rest of the skeleton, and has a deep,
longitudinal keel in the middle, is comparatively small in the ostrich
and has no keel at all. The ostrich, having no power of flight, is
dependent for safety upon its speed in running; so its legs are long and
strong, and the muscles which move them are very large. Indeed, there is
very little meat on an ostrich except on the thighs. It can run much
faster than a horse. Because its foot must be adapted to running at
great speed, the ostrich has only two toes. Its neck is very long and
slender, and its head is very small and flat. In such a head there is
little room for brains. The ostrich is a very stupid creature, but it
does not, as is commonly supposed, hide its head in the sand and imagine
that, not being able to see its enemies, it cannot be seen by them. That
is a myth apparently based upon the fact that, when in repose, an
ostrich sometimes lies with its long neck stretched upon the ground.
[Illustration: Fig. 179. Side view of male ostrich. (Photograph from the
Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)]
Since the wings of the ostrich are useless for flight, the flight
feathers have lost the structure adapted to that purpose and have
developed into beautiful plumes. The tail feathers have also undergone a
similar change. These wing and tail feathers are the ostrich feathers of
commerce. The neck and head of the ostrich are almost bare of feathers.
The body is covered with feathers, but not as densely as in most birds.
There are just enough feathers on the body of an ostrich to protect the
skin from exposure when they lie flat. The areas on the skin where there
are no feathers are much larger than on other birds. The thighs of the
ostrich are bare. The skin is in some varieties of a bluish-gray; in
other varieties the bare parts are red and the skin of the body is
yellow.
The crop and the gizzard of the ostrich are not separated as in other
birds, but are joined; the upper part of the stomach performs the
functions of a crop and the lower part those of a gizzard.
The male ostrich is usually larger than the female. The adult males and
females are plainly distinguished by the color of their plumage, the
body feathers of the male being black, while those of the female are
gray. The plumes of both sexes are white or white mixed with black. The
black on an ostrich is often of a brownish shade, and this is most
conspicuous when it appears on the plumes.
The bill of the male and the scales on the fronts of his shanks become a
bright rose color in the breeding season. The male ostrich utters a
guttural sound, called booming, which is said to resemble the roar of a
lion as heard at a distance. The voice of the female is like that of the
male, but very faint.
The difference in the plumage of the sexes, although it is not complete
until after the second adult molt, is noticeable much earlier. The
females do not begin to lay until three or four years old. The males are
not fully matured until four or five years of age. Ostriches are very
long-lived. Birds whose age could be verified have lived as long as
forty-five years in captivity, and at that age were profitable as
breeders and also as feather producers. It is believed by some of those
most competent to judge such matters that under favorable circumstances
an ostrich might live a hundred years or more. Very few of the birds
kept in domestication die of old age. They are so stupid, and their
long legs, though strong for running, are so easily broken, that an
accident of some kind almost always ends the life of an ostrich long
before it has passed its prime.
[Illustration: Fig. 180. Front view of male and female ostriches.
(Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department
of Agriculture)]
The name "ostrich" has an interesting history. The Greeks called this
singular bird _struthion'_. This came into the Latin language as
_struthio_. In low Latin, _avis_, the Latin word for "bird," was
prefixed to what remained of the Greek name, giving _avis struthio_.
"Ostrich" is a contraction of this low Latin compound. So we have in
this name a combination of two words from different languages, having
the same meaning. The terms "cock," "hen," and "chick" are used with the
name of the species, to designate respectively the adult male, the adult
female, and the young before the first plucking.
=Origin and history in domestication.= The domestic ostrich is the wild
African ostrich in captivity. It is probable that the ostrich was
familiar to the people of Northern Africa, and was known to those of the
adjacent parts of Asia and Europe, in prehistoric times. In very early
times ostriches may have been kept in captivity for their feathers, as
they are now kept in the Sudan, but, until about 1860, when the farmers
of South Africa began to take an interest in the subject, we have no
knowledge of any efforts to breed ostriches in captivity and to improve
the quality of the feathers by giving the birds more nutritious food
than they usually get in the wild state. The first stock used in South
Africa was some of the wild stock found in that part of the continent.
In 1882 the first ostriches were brought to the United States.
=Place in domestication.= Commercially the ostrich is valuable only for
its plume feathers. The extent of the development of ostrich culture
depends upon the demand for ostrich feathers at prices that will warrant
breeding ostriches to supply them. When the industry was first
established in South Africa, ostrich feathers brought high prices and
the business was very profitable; but so many farmers engaged in it, and
the supply of feathers increased so rapidly that prices soon became much
lower and have never since returned to the scale that prevailed at that
time.
The flesh of the ostrich is edible, but it is so hard and tough that no
one would grow ostriches for their flesh. The egg of an ostrich is about
as large as two dozen hen eggs. Ostrich eggs are said to be very good,
but they are too large for ordinary use, and the birds are so long in
maturing that it would not pay to use them to produce eggs for
commercial purposes.
[Illustration: Fig. 181. Ostrich eggs and newly hatched chicks.
(Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department
of Agriculture)]
The breeding of ostriches for their feathers, however, may be regarded
as a permanent industry, for there will always be a demand for ostrich
plumes, but it cannot be developed as extensively as if the product were
a staple article of food. The ostrich farms in America are mostly
special farms devoted exclusively to ostrich breeding. Most of these
farms are owned and operated by companies. Some of them are stock
speculation projects. In South Africa the industry is more in the hands
of the general farmers, each of those engaged in it growing a few birds.
The people of South Africa have tried to secure a monopoly in ostrich
feathers by prohibiting the exportation of ostriches and by purchasing
the best stock to be obtained in North Africa. Ostrich farming is
practical only in tropical and semitropical countries; the plumage of
the birds is too scanty to protect them in the cold winters of temperate
climes. In the United States nearly all the ostrich farms are in
Southern California and Arizona, but there are some in Texas, Arkansas,
and Florida.
=Management.= In the places where ostrich farming is carried on, the
birds need no shelter. They must be kept in inclosures fenced as for
cattle. As ostriches are bred for their plumage, and that of the male is
most valuable, the breeder does not object to their following their
natural inclination and mating in pairs, but many males are so injured
in fighting that they must be killed. This leaves an excess of females,
and so two or more females are sometimes mated with one male. The birds
are mated for breeding when they are about three and one-half years old.
The object of mating them before they are fully mature is to prevent
them from selecting for themselves partners contrary to the ideas of the
breeder. Each mating must have its own yard, unless the place where more
than one family is kept is large enough to allow each family the
exclusive use of a part of it. Under such circumstances each group will
keep to its own range.
The natural food of the ostrich is grass and the leaves of shrubs and
trees. In domestication it is usually pastured on alfalfa, or fed on
alfalfa hay, according to the season. The alfalfa is often supplemented
with grain (principally corn), and grit, bone, and shell are provided as
for other birds.
Most ostrich growers prefer to hatch the eggs in incubators, because by
removing the eggs from the nests they induce the hens to lay more, and
because the young ostriches are much easier to manage when by themselves
than when with the old birds. When a pair of ostriches hatch their own
eggs, the hen sits during the day and the cock at night. The period of
incubation is six weeks.
[Illustration: Fig. 182. Flock of ostriches on a California ostrich
farm. (Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States
Department of Agriculture)]
Young ostriches are fed the same as old ones. They are kept in flocks of
fifty or more until about a year old, when the sexes are separated. The
plumes are cut for the first time when the birds are between six and
seven months old. Although the process of removing these feathers is
called plucking, they are not drawn out, but are cut close to the skin.
The object is to get the feather immediately after it is grown, before
it can be soiled or damaged in any way. At that time the quill is still
full of blood. Drawing it out would be very painful to the bird, and
might injure the wing so that the next feather that grew would be
defective. The stumps of the feathers are allowed to remain until they
are dead and dry, when they are drawn out easily. In South Africa the
Kafirs draw the stumps out with their teeth. In about six or seven
months after the stumps are removed, the new plumes are grown and the
process of plucking is repeated.