. Birds and nature . ur, which is rare, are dressedimmediately. The tail feathers areplucked out, not cut, as they reproducemore readily than those on other partsof the body. Throughout the opera-tion the bird keeps up a dismal , however, is not the cause. When first plucked, the feathers aregrey and brown. They must thereforebe dyed or bleached and curled beforethey are ready for market. The ostrichreceives its first plucking at the age ofseven months, but the feathers do notreach perfection until the bird is fullytwenty-one months old. After this thepickings are made, once in sev
. Birds and nature . ur, which is rare, are dressedimmediately. The tail feathers areplucked out, not cut, as they reproducemore readily than those on other partsof the body. Throughout the opera-tion the bird keeps up a dismal , however, is not the cause. When first plucked, the feathers aregrey and brown. They must thereforebe dyed or bleached and curled beforethey are ready for market. The ostrichreceives its first plucking at the age ofseven months, but the feathers do notreach perfection until the bird is fullytwenty-one months old. After this thepickings are made, once in sevenmonths, and, as eighty years is not agreat age for an ostrich, the big fellowis a valuable possession. The feathersfrom older birds are, however, but littleesteemed, in fact, these older birds, areusually kept for breeding purposes only. The birds are generally divided intotrios, one male and two females. Eachtrio requires about two acres of groundto run. The chicks are hatched with in-cubators. Louise Jamison. 128. THE FLICKER (Colaptes auratus) Above him in the sycamore The FHcker beats a dull tattoo;Through pawpaw groves the soft airs pour Gold dust of blooms and fragrance new. Maurice Thompson, The Blue Heron. In the Flicker, Nature has producedone of the most beautiful and one ofthe most interesting of birds. As wewander through the woods we are greetedby the happy cheer up call of this hand-some bird and as we draw nearer wemay see Mister Flicker seek another andmore distant retreat in a series of long,wave-like flights, his golden wings flash-ing in the sunlight like burnished is careful to keep the tree betweenhimself and his human observer, and hewill take nervous little peeks at us,around the side of the tree, just to keepposted about our movements. A notice-able characteristic of this bird is its habitof perching crosswise on a limb like theperching birds, thus differing from mostbirds of this order, which always clingto the side of the tree trunk. Anotherp
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