File:Ostrich farming in South Africa. Being an account of its origin and rise; how to set about it; the profits to be derived; how to manage the birds; the capital required; the diseases and difficulties (14751684245).jpg

Identifier: ostrichfarmingin00doug (find matches)
Title: Ostrich farming in South Africa. Being an account of its origin and rise; how to set about it; the profits to be derived; how to manage the birds; the capital required; the diseases and difficulties to be met with, &c. &c
Year: 1881 (1880s)
Authors: Douglass, Arthur
Subjects: Ostrich farms Ostrich farming
Publisher: London, Paris & New York, Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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irst as well as the others. Some farmers build little huts or weather-screensover the nests, but they do not answer well, whilst thesand nests are perfect in themselves. Many breeders consider it detrimental to take thefeathers of breeding birds. As far as their inclinationfor breeding goes this is quite a mistake, though thefeathers may help them to cover their eggs, and theyare certainly beneficial to them in rearing their young.But in artificial hatching and rearing, leaving thefeathers on the birds is simply a dead loss. Beginners want cautioning^ that, no matter how tamethe parent birds may be, directly they hear the chicks 110 OSTRICH-FAKMING IN SOUTH AFRICA. queak in the shell their T^hole nature changes, becom-ing intensely savage, the hen being worse than thecock; they will then charge with such force that unlessa man has a thoroughly good bush he might easily bekilled; but if he has a really good bush with him,after a few charges the bird finds it is mastered, andtames down.
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CHAPTER XVIII. ARTIFICIAL HATCHING. A LITTLE consideration of what was known of ArtificialHatching, previous to our applying the art to the multi-plication of Ostriches, will prove, I believe, both interest-ing and instructive to the farmer. In nature we have only one kind of bird that doesnot sit on its eggs, using instead artificial heat: thisis the ^ Megapadius tumulus,^ the jungle-fowl of Aus-tralia. This bird is described as making immense heapsof vegetable matter, said in some cases to be fifteenfeet in height by fifty in circumference, and to be usedby several pairs of birds jointU, for several years insuccession. The eggs are laid singly at a depth ofseveral feet in the heap, and the holes filled in, therequisite heat being generated by the decay of thevegetable matter, as they are observed to be made wherethe foliage is thick and the rays of the sun cannotpenetrate. In the back parts of Western Australia, onthe sandy plains, where probably the necessarj^ amountof vegetable ma

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