30 NEORNITHES RATITAE chap. 



being stalked or ridilen down by means of fresh relays of beasts ; 

 the Namaquas draw a cordon round them ; the Bushman, con- 

 cealed in sand or disguised in skins, shoots them with poisoned 

 arrows ; while the lasso, pitfall, or other device are used in par- 

 ticular districts. Space will not permit a detailed account of 

 the Ostrich farms of modern Africa, so well described in Messrs. 

 de Mosenthal and Harting's Ostriches and Ostrich-Farming, and 

 other books ; but it may be mentioned that the tribes of the 

 north of that continent have long been in the habit of domes- 

 ticatino; the bird, that the value of the sales in South Africa is 

 not far from a million pounds yearly, and that the plumes are 

 plucked or, preferably, cut about twice a year, the adults yielding 

 the finest feathers. The flesh is coarse, and of little use for food. 



II. RHEAE. 



Fam. Rheidae. The Rheas, or Nanclus, have the head, neck, 

 and bill much like those of Ostriches, the maxilla being somewhat 

 more rounded and terminating in a nail-like process ; the meta- 

 tarsus is also similar and equally stout in proportion, but the toes 

 are three in number in place of two, the mid-phalanges being "^ 

 shortened and the terminal furnished with decided claws. In 

 Rhea darwini alone the metatarsi are mainly reticulated instead 

 of scutellated anteriorly, and have the upper portion feathered. 

 The bones of the wing are comparatively well developed, the 

 feathers being slender but not ornamental, while there is no 

 apparent tail. The furcula is wanting, as is the aftershaft to the 

 feathers, but the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial with one pair of 

 syringeal muscles, a condition absolutely unique among the Eatitae. 

 The head and neck are feathered, only the lores, orbits, and ear-open- 

 ings being naked, and of these the latter are surrounded by bristles. 



Rlica americana, the so-called American Ostrich, the Ema of 

 the Brazilians, the Avestruz, Nandii, or Chueke of Argentina, 

 is found from Bolivia, Paraguay, and South Brazil to the Eio 

 Negro, if not further ; it is brownish-grey with blackish crown, 

 nape, and breast, white thighs and abdomen, and yellowish neck. 

 The sub-species R. macrorhyncha of North-East Brazil is darker, 

 with longer bill and more slender metatarsi. R. darwini, which 

 occurs south of the Rio Negro, and up the Andes to Tarapaca, is 

 butfish-brown, with whiter underparts and white margins to the 



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