Perrysburg Journal

WOMAN AND HOME.

OSTRICHES AS PETS

Imported from South America by an Enterprising Irish Lady

There was once an astonishing picture by Du Maurier in Punch, says a London sketch writer, representing an imaginary scene in the London streets under the auspices of the Acclimatization society. In this, if I remember rightly, a pair of ostriches were depicted as being harnessed and driven down Piccadilly. We have not yet quite arrived at this pitch of civilization, though the zebra has been seen in the park.

However, an Irish lady, Mrs. Willoughby Fox, has, during the past few years, amused herself with importing a few of these birds and rearing them in Surrey. They have been brought over when quite young from Bahia Blanca, in La Plata, where there are immense numbers of ostriches in a wild state. They are somewhat smaller than their South African congeners, and do not produce such valuable plumes, though they have a mass of white feathers under their wings which are used for boas.

Nor do they require the same extensive area as the Cape variety, for each specimen of which the allowance is said to be ten acres. Mrs. Fox's birds, however, are by no means insignificant fowl, and are not to be confused with the smaller bird known as the rhea.

They stand about seven feet in height, and can run at the rate of 25 miles an hour, covering a distance of from nine to eleven feet in their ordinary stride. Their eggs are of the capacity of ten hen's eggs, and therefore each one makes a very respectable omelette.

The fresh eggs sent over from South America are quite palatable, and by no means so strong as those from the Cape. The ostriches were brought from Bahia Blanca when about six months old, and apparently have thriven in the English climate; at any rate, they passed safely through the recent severe winters, being, of course, sheltered in their stables during frost.

While on board ship their diet was a matter of great difficulty, corn having to be sown for them in the dark, so that they might consume the green shoots.

Once on dry land, however, they regain their appetite, and live on potatoes, maize and green food of all kinds. They consume a fair quantity of iron nails and such unconsidered trifles, and are not averse to an occasional nip of whisky and water. The ostriches do not attain to maturity till they are three years old, and, it seems, never acquire any remarkable amount of intelligence, though they have learnt to answer to their names, and they exhibit a decided temper of their own.

ONE OF MRS. FOX'S PETS.

They stoutly resist any liberties in the way of harnessing, one method of defeating this object being to lie on their backs and kick. They jump a very fair height, and descend opening their wings like a parachute.

Their antics and attitudes, in fact, are innumerable, and they have half a dozen ways of sitting down. One thing, however, they do not do, is to hide their heads in the sand or its English substitute.

The birds are excessively stupid in some things--for instance, in trying to get through small apertures; and a very low railing, about three feet high, suffices to keep them within bounds, in spite of their jumping powers. They show no disposition to roam. It cannot be said that they earn their living, but they are amusing, and form a singular and attractive feature in an English landscape. With the exception of a slight hiss, they are silent, which is more than can be said of peacocks, or many other ornamental birds. It is quite possible that, as the ostriches get regularly acclimatized in England, they will develop an extra thick crop of feathers to resist the cold, and will therefore become more valuable.