=Origin and history in domestication.= The domestic ostrich is the wild African ostrich in captivity. It is probable that the ostrich was familiar to the people of Northern Africa, and was known to those of the adjacent parts of Asia and Europe, in prehistoric times. In very early times ostriches may have been kept in captivity for their feathers, as they are now kept in the Sudan, but, until about 1860, when the farmers of South Africa began to take an interest in the subject, we have no knowledge of any efforts to breed ostriches in captivity and to improve the quality of the feathers by giving the birds more nutritious food than they usually get in the wild state. The first stock used in South Africa was some of the wild stock found in that part of the continent. In 1882 the first ostriches were brought to the United States. =Place in domestication.= Commercially the ostrich is valuable only for its plume feathers. The extent of the development of ostrich culture depends upon the demand for ostrich feathers at prices that will warrant breeding ostriches to supply them. When the industry was first established in South Africa, ostrich feathers brought high prices and the business was very profitable; but so many farmers engaged in it, and the supply of feathers increased so rapidly that prices soon became much lower and have never since returned to the scale that prevailed at that time. The flesh of the ostrich is edible, but it is so hard and tough that no one would grow ostriches for their flesh. The egg of an ostrich is about as large as two dozen hen eggs. Ostrich eggs are said to be very good, but they are too large for ordinary use, and the birds are so long in maturing that it would not pay to use them to produce eggs for commercial purposes. [Illustration: Fig. 181. Ostrich eggs and newly hatched chicks. (Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)]