JAPAN’S “ONAGA-DORI"

Evening Star, Issue 22963, 21 May 1938, Page 1

JAPAN’S “ONAGA-DORI"

THE TAIL FEATHERS ARE 16 FEET LONG The long-tailed fowl, known as “onaga-dori” a pair of which have arrived at Taronga Park as a gift of reciprocation for the male emu which was sent to the Tokio Zoo from Sydney last year, are very rare even in Japan (writes Bertha Clarke in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’). The extremely long and graceful tails, which sometimes grow to 16ft, are the result of experiments stretching over a period of 100 years, of inbreeding and crossing the ordinary domestic fowl with green, copper, and golden pheasants and other birds. Credit for raising the first specimens is given to Takeichi (Rieimon, a resident of a little village called Shmowara, in the province of Kochi—formerly known as Tosa—on the large island of Shikoku, which forms the eastern boundary of the lovely Inland Sea. At first the fowl was called Goshikidori, or five-coloured birds, but after much experimentation breeders -succeeded in producing black and white feathers, and, later, in the Meiji period (1868-1911), beautiful pure white, longtailed fowl were developed. The tails grow about 2ft 6in a year, and attain a length of 12 or more feet. The average life of a bird is nine years, but the price the rooster has to pay for his ornamental appearance is almost complete isolation from his companions of the barnyard. In order to keep his beautiful feathers intact and clean ho must spend most of life standing or sitting on a perch so that his tail bangs free and loose. Owing to their rarity, these birds are very expensive, and their owners take great care of them. Once or twice a. day they are taken for a walk, with ah attendant holding up the tail in the same way as pages carry a bride’s train, so that it will not get soiled or_ broken, and several times a month it is shampooed with warm water and carefully dried. Like most birds, the female “ onagadori ” has to give way to her lordly master in the matter of appearance, and her tail only reaches the modest length of about Sin. She lays on an average 30 eggs a year, but leaves the hatching of them to an ordinary hen. The main diet of the birds _ is unhulled rice, varied with small eel-liko live fish, greens, and plenty of water.