File:Gray lady and the birds; stories of the bird year for home and school (1907) (14753309884).jpg

Identifier: grayladybirdssto00wrig (find matches)
Title: Gray lady and the birds; stories of the bird year for home and school
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Wright, Mabel Osgood, Mrs., 1859-
Subjects: Birds Birds
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
im but to kill beastor bird and offer some part of it in trade ? In this way the elephants tusks, of which ivory ismade, rare furs, alligator hides, and Ostrich eggs andplumes, as well as rough uncut gems, became known tothe people of Europe. The savages hunted the wild Ostrich with bow andarrows that were sometimes poisoned, and the bird beingkilled, of course, yielded but one crop of feathers. As the Ostrich cannot fly and is a very stupid bird,living in open deserts where there were few places to hide,it was very easily destroyed — its only means of escapebeing to outrun its pursuers, who were on foot. Butpresently when firearms were used to hunt him, the Ostrichseemed as utterly doomed as the White Heron. But the day came when men who realized the greatdemand there was for these feathers and the profit to bemade by selling them, tried the experiment of raising thebirds in captivity, just as we do our barnyard fowl, treat-ing them kindly, and feeding them well, so that they might
Text Appearing After Image:
CLIPPING OSTRICH PLUMES FEATHERS AND HATS 75 yield not only one but many crops of plumes, because theyknew that the Ostrich is not only long-lived but, like thesmaller birds, changes its feathers every year. The Ostrich was a difficult bird to catch and tamewhen full grown, for at that time they weigh severalhundred pounds and their habit of kicking has to beremembered, the same as with a wild horse. So the planwas tried of collecting the eggs and hatching them out,and even this was not as easy as it seems. •Though Ostriches are so foolish that, when chased, theywill often stand still and hide their heads in the sand,evidently thinking that if they cannot see their pursuers,they themselves cannot be seen, they make devotedparents. And this plan was so successful that Ostrichesare now raised like domestic fowls, not only in Africa butin this country, where the birds were introduced in 1882,and there are now many successful Ostrich farms in Ari-zona, California, and Florida, where alf

Note About Images