786 RHEA 
already described in the case of other Ratite birds. Like most of 
them it is polygamous, and the male performs the duty of incuba- 
tion, brooding more than a score of eggs, the produce of several 
females—facts known to Nieremberg more than two hundred and 
fifty years since, but hardly accepted by naturalists until recently. 
Aa \ 
~S SN 
SS x \ 
a 
\ 
Vi 
A 
4 
From causes which, if explicable, do not here concern us, no 
examples of this bird seem to have been brought to Europe before 
the beginning of the present century, and accordingly the descriptions 
previously given of it by systematic writers were taken at second 
hand, and were mostly defective if not misleading. In 1803 
Latham issued a wretched figure of the species from a half-grown 
