232 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
licence to kill, which everfone possesses, has been 
exercised with such zeal and fury that in a very few 
more years the noblest Avian type of the great bird- 
continent will be as unknown on the earth as the 
Moa and the 4pyornis. 
The Rhea lives in bands of from three or four to 
twenty or thirty individuals. Where they are not 
persecuted they show no fear of man, and come about 
the houses, and are as familiar and tame as domestic 
animals. Sometimes they become too familiar, At 
one estancia I remember an old cock bird that con- 
stantly came alone to feed near the gate, which had 
so great an animosity against the human figure in 
petticoats that the women of the house could not go 
out on foot or horseback without a man to defend 
them from its attacks. When the young are taken 
from the parent bird they become, as Azara truly 
says, ‘‘ domestic from the first day,’”’ and will follow 
their owner about like a dog. It is this natural tame- 
ness, together with the majesty and quaint grace of 
its antique form, which makes the destruction of 
the Rhea so painful to think of. 
When persecuted, Rheas soon acquire a wary 
habit, and escape by. running almost before the 
enemy has caught a sight of them; or else crouch 
down to conceal themselves in the long grass; and 
it then becomes difficult to find them, as they lie 
close, and will not rise until almost trodden on. Their 
speed and endurance are so great that, with a fair 
start, it is almost impossible for the hunter to over- 
take them, however well mounted. When the bird 
