File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17972927068).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo16amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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258 77//-: AM ERIC AX MUSEUM .JOURNAL competitors and soon prohibited ostrich ex- portation. Before these drastic measures were taken however, a sufficient number of birds had been removed to other countries to assure the future growth of the industry in various regions of the world. It was in 1882 that these birds were first brought to the United States for breeding purposes. Today there are ostrich farms at Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose, California; Hot Springs, Arkansas; Jacksonville, Florida, and a few others elsewhere. There is money to be made in the ostrich business, for the wing and tail plumes of this bird are as popular today for human adornment as they ever were. Even low grade feathers command a good price for use in the manufacture of l)oas, feather bands, trimming for doll hats and other secondary purposes. When the time comes for plucking the feathers, the ostriches are driven one at a time into a V-shaped corral just large enough to admit the bird's body and the workman. Here a long slender hood is slipped over his head and the wildest bird instantly becomes docile. Evidently he regards himself as effectively hidden and secure from all the terrors of earth. There is no pain whatever attached to the taking of ostrich feathers, for they are merely clipped from the bird by means of scissors. A month or two later, when the stubs of the quills have become dry, they are readily picked from the wings with- out injury to the new feathers. The ostrich industry is worthy of encour- agement. No woman need fear that she is aiding the destruction of birds in any way bj' wearing ostrich plumes. There are many more of the birds in the world today than there were when their domestication first be- gan, and probably no wild African or Asiatic ostriches are now shot or trapped for their plumes. The product seen in our stores all comes from strong happy birds hatched and reared in captivity. Use of their feathers does not entail the sacrifice of life, nor does it cause the slightest suffering to the ostrich; taking plumes from an ostrich is no more painful to the bird than shearing is to a sheep, and does not cause it half the alarm a sheep often exhibits at shearing time. If the call for feather finery rings so loudly in the hearts of women, that it must never cease to be heard, it is the ostrich — the big, ungainly, yet graceful ostrich — which will supply the high grade feathers of the future.
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