|
Jul 2016
4:28pm, 27 Jul 2016
23,577 posts
|
macca 53
Zinadine Zadane buts and Italian player
semi-final
|
|
Jul 2016
4:37pm, 27 Jul 2016
16,191 posts
|
Diogenes
1990 - Zsa Zsa Gabor B a TDJSFS a C
|
|
Jul 2016
5:03pm, 27 Jul 2016
20,806 posts
|
GlennR
Begin two three day
|
|
Jul 2016
5:28pm, 27 Jul 2016
16,193 posts
|
Diogenes
1990 - Zsa Zsa Gabor begins a three day JSFS a C
Not a butt, but along the right lines
|
|
Jul 2016
5:32pm, 27 Jul 2016
83,819 posts
|
GregP
journey selling fish soup a canard
|
|
Jul 2016
5:38pm, 27 Jul 2016
16,194 posts
|
Diogenes
Can't give you anything for that I'm afraid, it's a duck.
|
|
Jul 2016
8:36am, 28 Jul 2016
83,827 posts
|
GregP
Routt County Courier, Volume 14, Number 50, July 28, 1910
An Ostrich Farm
WE HAVE today visited an os trich farm in lovely, balmy South California, situated between Los Angeles and Pasadena, a farm that con tains 200 gigantic birds. The guide Informed us that some seventeen odd years ago fifty birds were brought from South Africa by Mr. Cawston. the proprietor. Of these, several died on board ship, others after their arrival, and a few only eventually became acclimatized. The latter bred and multiplied. Other birds were added, and cross breeding, the fine climate, care, regular and good feeding, brought these farm ostriches to be the superiors of the wild birds which have to struggle for existence on the African deserts. The first and largest of the corrals contains the Kindergarten. Pine children it held of various ages, continuously on the move, after the restless manner of youth. “The boys wear black coats, you will perceive," said our cicverone, “the girls gray, which undervlating uniform is an assistance to strangers in determining sex, for the females run the males close in size The babies are round that corner the same side.” Three had recently been hatched out of a sitting of sixteen. “One dropped off, and then there were two!” Two perky little ones, of ten days old. with funny stubby little backs, looking as If tousled horse-hair replaced the soft down of the callow period common to most birds, but the body such perfect ovals tb"* tuck in the heads and legs, and prestro! one perceives they could again adriotly refit into their vacated, big, creamy-hued shells. The parent birds, we learnt, concern themselves little about thier young after their advent. Possibly the forty days they are engaged over the hatching satisfies their paternal and # maternal instincts. At any rate, in this farm they are brought up by hand by an attendant. as they require to be dealt with Judiciously to tide over the early months of babyhood. For the first four days they are unfed, after whichthey are allowed alfalfa, and they pick up gravel to aid digestion, being busily employed thereat as we surveyed the couple, with the adroit alacrity of a robin picking up worms out of the newly-turned soil in our northern lands. Seemingly sturdy as are their little frames, they have to be sheltered at night even in equable California, for damp or chill would enendanger them at this early period of growth. In the marital relationship trtp ostrich sets a good example to all classes of society. It is constant in attachment," never attempting, but resenting, divorce. The mate shares the long-darwn-out hours of incubation with the hen, the wife of his choice. At the age of four the male bird seeks his spouse, and having found one to his liking, sticks to her and to her only; and when she presents him with the eggs that are to carry on their kind, he does turn and turn about in the sitting, and sometimes extra innings, the good lady being exercised at the outset by the laying of an egg about three pounds in weight-each equal to thirty, chicken eggs. Alternate days until thirty days give them a store worthy their devotion to the further requisite weeks demanded for the bringing into being. There is no billing and cooing and gathering up of material for nest-making. Such a big nest it would have to be! Instead. in their native state the birds scoop out the warm sand and deposit the eggs therein; and at this Pasadena breeding corral, on a corner of the bare ground, lay an incompleted heap which, when the tally was completed, the huge patient birds would start on, without the doing of much beyond the covering of the giant eggs with their giant bodies. As they sit in the open, readily dlscernable to the naked eye. in the clear air of their native regions, nature has provided them with suitable colored feathering. The gray of the female for the daylight, the black of the male for the night hours. But on this our # visit. Mr. Washington had obligingly not tarried for the shadows, but was lolling on the eggs that good Mrs.
Washington had abandoned, and was stretching a long-drawn-out neck and taking a gentle side roll for relaxation, while Dame Washington was easing her cramped legs by a stroll round the corral, congratulating herself doubtless on being early off duty. These long-necked birds bolt the most extraordinary things, such as iron and steel nails, gimlets, tennis and other hard balls. Jewels, and stones. The gardner took from a basket oranges, of which fruit they are exceedingly fond, and decorously bidding the previously quiet but now eager birds to wait their turn and—- “ Place aux dames, let Madame have the first,” his hand, scarce neared the gaping beak protruding ready, than, gulp, and in the long thin neck the orange showed the way down, gone ere a lady watching could exclaim, “she does not even seem to taste it though we see It going.” “Why certainly," responds our gardener, to whom the remark seemed not unexpected, “its a lengthened-out enjoyment. You remember Mark Twain and the giraffe.” Plucking season, we are told, is announced in the local papers, and visitors throng for the interesting event, which, in reality, is a cutting of the larger plumes and only a plucking of the smaller ones that are ready to fall. There is no pain in the removal, as the"large feathers are also ripe for falling, but the birds resent the initial handling, and an angry ostrich is a danger, as they kick with a power and directness well known to denizens of the desert. Consequently they are beguiled, not driven, into a corner of the corral by several men, and a hood is drawn over their heads, when, realizing their helplessness they offer little or no resistance. The oldest ostriches stand eight feet high and weigh 300 pounds. The feathers of the male are In some respects superior to those of the female, harder in texture, retaining curl longer and are capable of taking a beautiful glossy finish. On the live birds they are not the long, thick plumes we seek in purchase, but are single, flat and somewhat unusable looking. Three or more of like length and width are placed together and other methods ot treatment are adopted to obtain the richness, fluffiness and grace that render them so attractive for personal adornment.
|
|
Jul 2016
8:37am, 28 Jul 2016
83,828 posts
|
GregP
jail sentence for sucking a cock?
|
|
Jul 2016
8:37am, 28 Jul 2016
83,829 posts
|
GregP
shooting a cormerant
|
|
Jul 2016
8:38am, 28 Jul 2016
83,830 posts
|
GregP
stabbing a copper
|
Wednesday Lurkerthon
Feb 2025