38 NATURAL HISTORY OF DIRDS. 



tlic'ir African rtlatives. The marks which they have in common with them, and whicli 

 conscijucnlly 'lislingiiishcs both these from llie cassowai'ies anil enuis, besiiles tliose 

 which Bcparatu the two inter se, have been poinleil out brieH y under the head of the 

 foregoing sii]>er-family, with tiie exception that in llie IJheidiu the pubes are free, wliilc 

 the isciiia are united in a ventral symiiliysis, that tlie maxillo-palatines do not touch 

 the vomer, and tliat only a left carotid is present. We shall therefore here only men- 

 tion a feature shared by no other member of the order, viz., the jieculiar and highly 

 Hjiecialized lower larynx. This was first discovered by the French naturalist, Mr. Alix, 

 in 1^74, and afterwards fully described by the late Professor Forbes, who sums tip its 

 most striking characters as follows: "In the possession of a tracheal box formed by 

 the fusion of the few last tracheal rings, in the greater amount of speci.ilizatiKn of 

 the first two bronchial semi-rings of each side, in the presence of district interamular 

 nienil>ranc-<-overed fenestra', in the development of a well-marked cartilaginous pes- 

 sulus, and in the possession of a pair of true intrinsic syringeal muscles running from 

 the trachea to the bronchial semi-rings, Ji/uti stands out by itself .as sharply opp<is(>d to 

 all the remaining 'Ifatilc' birds." 



Three species, all from South America, are known at present ; the old and rather 

 well known " Avestruz" of the Gauchos, and a nearly ally, described about fifteen years 

 ago bv Dr. Sdater, both referable to the restricted genus li/ieu, an<l named respectively 

 Ji/u'K r/iat (or Ji/i. amcrivaiia) and Ith. macrorlojiirha. The latter, the true habitat 

 of which still seems to be doubtful, is considerably smaller, as it stands six inches lower 

 than the female of the common nandu, but has a much longer bill, and is, besides, 

 much darker, the top of the heail and streaks at the back of the neck in ])articular 

 being decj) black. Both these are disliiiLruisIiiMl from lilt, ihinrlnii in having scutel- 

 late tarsi, which in tiie latter are retii-iihitc. It has therefore been made a separate 

 genus, Pteroaieinia, a further character of which, in achlition to several anatomical 

 d i tie re n CCS, is that the leg is plumeil below the knee for several inches. The termi- 

 nal white b.ind on the wing feathers is a striking color mark. 



Not only is the nandu the oldest known species, but also the one having the 

 greatest distribution, occurring as it does, from sotithern Hrazil to Magellan's Strait. 

 The general color is a brownish gray, lighter, nearly whitish on the belly; the small 

 and narrow feathers on the crown, na)ie, and n]>per neck, are blackish in the male, 

 lighter in the female, which is the smaller of the two, the former measuring about six 

 feet in length, the latter hardly five and a lialf. 



Living on the |)ampas, and feeding on gra.sses and seeds of different herbs, and also 

 on the red berries of the Empetrwn 'nibntm, the Rhea, like its African cousin, has 

 chit'fly to rely u]>on its legs and acute sight for escajiing danger, but seems to haveik'vel- 

 0]ieil considerably more iiitelli'^'cnce, though he has often to pay the jienalty of a too 

 great curiosity with his life ; an<l Darwin relates how, though fleet in its paces, and 

 shy in its nature, it yet falls an easy prey to the hunters, who confound it by a])]m)ach- 

 ing on horseback in a semicircle. lie also states that when jmrsued it gener.-dly 

 yirefers running against the wind, expanding its wing to the full extent. Mr. Barrows 

 h.'is recently in "The Auk" given some interesting information as to the manner in 

 which the 'Avestruz' is hunted in Lower Uruguay, as follows: " During our stay at 

 Puan, about two hundred Indians united in a two-days' ostrich-hunt, resulting in the 

 capture of about sixty birds of all sizes, from the full grown adult down to two-month 

 'chicks.' They begin by beating over a large tr.ict of the jilain, and then closing in 

 arounil the game started. Stout greyhounds are used to good pm-jiose, usually ]iuHing 



