THE OSTRICH AND ITS SPLENDID PLUMES
After our talk about the pigeon, with its swift powers of flight, we now come to a bird which has no power of flight at all, yet which is of much value to us from the splendid feathers of its wings. It would take strong wings indeed to lift from the ground the ostrich, the largest of all birds, standing six to eight feet high. But what it lacks in wings it makes up in legs, for it is a wonderful runner, being able to outrun the fastest horse. As it runs it spreads its wings, which seem to act as sails.
The ostrich has often been tamed and thus it may be classed with birds of the home, though much too large for the poultry yard. It grows quite friendly to those who have it in charge, but does not like strangers and is apt to attack them in a violent manner. As these birds are plentiful in the great Sahara desert, they were often kept by the Romans and used in their public shows. They were also used as food, and a glutton among the Roman emperors is said to have had the brains of a large number of ostriches served up to him in a single dish.
The people of Africa are very fond of ostrich eggs and travellers in that land also speak well of them. Each egg weighs about three pounds, so that one of them is equal to about two dozen hen's eggs. The egg is cooked by being set on end in a fire and its contents stirred about with a stick thrust into a hole in the upper end. The shell is so thick and strong that it is used in Africa as a water vessel.
It is not for its brain or its eggs that the ostrich is kept in our days, but for its fine plumes. These bring such high prices that the birds are tamed and kept on what are called ostrich farms in order to get a good supply of those rare feathers. The first farms were started in South Africa in 1869, and they have since spread to other countries. The birds need warm regions, the only states fitted for them in this country being California and Florida.
On a California Ostrich Farm
The long, white, beautiful ostrich plumes so highly prized by ladies all over the world grow in the ends of the wings of the male birds. A good bird, in the prime of its life, will yield from twenty to forty of these, and also a few black feathers from the wings. The tail feathers are of much less beauty and value.
In the early days of the industry the feathers were worth $500 a pound and the plumes of one bird would sometimes bring $125. But they have now become so plentiful that the price has gone down to less than one-tenth of these figures.
To pluck the feathers, the bird is put in a box of such small size that it cannot kick. It does not enjoy the plucking, and a kick from its great leg is enough to break a man's bones. We can understand its feelings, for the feathers used to be cruelly pulled out by the roots. Now they are cut, leaving the roots of the quills, which can be pulled out easily in a month or two. As for the use and beauty of these superb plumes we need only to view the hat of a lady which is adorned by one or more of them. The whole bird kingdom yields nothing more beautiful.
VI
WINGED AND TUNEFUL HOME PETS
If you look back over the earlier pages of this book, you will find that it deals with animals in some way of use to man, creatures that guard his houses, help him in his sports, serve him as food, carry him on their backs, haul his carts and wagons, and in other ways help him to live and thrive.
But our home friends are not all of this useful kind. There are some that we keep just because we like to have them with us, and make friends of for their sweet songs, their beauty of form or color, and the love they give us for the love we give them. These are the song birds of the home, the pretty little winged warblers which we keep in cages to save them from the prowling cat and to hinder them from flying away, but which we do all we can to make happy and joyous, and which pay us back in their own charming way.
There are many of these cage-pets. The one that we see most of is the canary, but there are many others for which we find room in our homes and are as glad to keep as they seem glad to be kept. Among these birds of the cage and the aviary are the linnet and the bullfinch, admired for their beauty of color; the mocking bird, with its wonderful power of imitating the songs of all the feathered brood; the thrush, a singer of fine powers; the finch, with its cheerful whistle, especially the bullfinch, splendid in color and varied in song; the bunting, the lark, the wagtail, and various others admired for beauty or sweetness of song; and to these we must add the strange and amusing bird talkers, such as the parrot, which has wonderful powers of learning words and fitting them into the right place, a bird that fairly makes us jump at times by the neat way in which it says the right thing at the right time. Then there are the magpie, the jackdaw, and the starling, ready talkers and good company for the lonely.