BIRDS. 123 



eggs ; so that in one day's hunting the third part found were in this state. 

 It appears odd that so many should be wasted. Does it not arise from some 

 difficulty in several females associating together, and in finding a male ready to 

 undertake the office of incubation ? It is evident that there must at first be some 

 degree of association, between at least two females ; otherwise the eggs would 

 remain scattered at distances far too great to allow of the male collecting them 

 into one nest. Some authors believe that the scattered eggs are deposited for the 

 young birds to feed on. This can hardly be the case in America, because the 

 huachos, although often found addled and putrid, are generally whole. 



2. Rhea Darwinii. Gould. 



Plate XL VII. 

 Gould, in Proceedings of Zoological See. 1837, p. 35. 



R. jmllide fusca, plumd singula distinctd semilunari notd Candida terminutd ; capite 

 collo, Jemoribusqne pallidiorihus : rostri culmine augusti, adapicem latiore, frontes 

 plumis parvis setosis antich directis et supra nares extensis ; tarsi lateribus in 

 dimidiam jxirtem plumis parvis mollibus tectis ; tarso f antice posticeque toto, 

 squamis reticulatis tecto. 



Long. tot. 52 unc ; ate, 30; tarsi, 11 ; rostri, 2. 



The whole of the plumage light brown, each feather with a decided crescent- 

 shaped mark of pure white at the extremity ; head, neck, and thighs lighter; 

 base of the neck blackish; culmen of the bill narrow, becoming a little 

 broader towards apex ; front with small bristly feathers, pointing forwards 

 and reaching over the nostrils. Tarsus with small downy feathers on sides, 

 extending half way downwards; upper two-thirds of front of tarsus, and 

 whole hinder side, with reticulated scales. 



Habitat, Eastern Patagonia (Lat. 40° S. to 54° S.) 



This species, which Mr. Gould, in briefly characterizing it at a meeting of 

 the Zoological Society, has done me the honour of calling after my name, differs 

 in many respects from the Rhea Americana. It is smaller, and the general tinge 

 of the plumage is a light brown in place of grey; each feather being conspicuously 

 tipped with white. The bill is considerably smaller, and especially less broad at 

 its base ; the culmen is less than half as wide, and becomes slightly broader 

 towards the apex, whereas in the R. Americana it becomes slightly narrower; the 

 extremity, however, of both the upper and the lower mandible, is more tumid in 

 the latter, than in the R. Darwinii. 



