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.

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.

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.

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.

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.