THE RHEAS OR AMERICAN OSTRICHES 



2331 



Capture and 

 Domesti- 

 cation 



the hotter regions the eggs being left to themselves, with a covering of sand during 

 the day. 



As already mentioned, advantage is taken of the peculiar habits of 

 the ostrich to surround its flocks by a party of mounted men, and by 

 this method many are killed in Africa. There are, however, many 

 other ways of capture. For instance, the bushmen are or were in the 

 habit of dressing themselves in the skin of an ostrich, and thus disguised penetra- 

 ting into the midst of a flock, when the birds were dispatched one after another by 

 means of poisoned arrows. The hunter must, however, take care to keep to the 

 leeward of his victims. In Somaliland the natives hunt the ostrich on camels; while 

 in Arabia and the Sahara it is ridden down on horseback. The bushmen and Soma- 

 lis also resort to the aid of pitfalls; while the lasso is employed by the Haden- 

 dowa Arabs of the Sudan, and some other tribes; and in Sennar a curved stick is 

 used in boomerang fashion for the same purpose. In Namaqualand the birds are 

 either surrounded by a cordon of men on foot, who gradually close in upon the 

 flock, or they are driven by mounted hunters past concealed relays of their compan- 

 ions, who in turn take up the pursuit till their victims fall through sheer exhaus- 

 tion. In addition to the methods noticed, the bushmen have also recourse to 

 the plan of concealing one of their number in the sand of a nest, after the removal 

 of the eggs, and by him the birds on their return are shot down with poisoned arrows. 



THE RHEAS OR AMERICAN OSTRICHES 



Family 



In South America 

 the place of the ostriches 

 is taken by an allied 

 group of birds known as 

 rheas, or, as they are 

 often termed, American 

 ostriches, which are dis- 

 tinguished externally by 

 the presence of three 

 toes, furnished with 

 claws instead of nails, 

 and by the fully-feathered 

 head and neck, and the 

 absence of a tail. The 

 wings also are propor- 

 tionately longer, and are HEAD op COMMON RHEA . 



COVered with long, slender (From Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1860.) 



plumes. Agreeing with 



the ostriches in the absence of aftershafts to the feathers, in their pale colored 



