218 RHEID.E. 



petticoats, that the women of the house could not go out on foot or 

 horseback without a man to defend them from its attacks. When the 

 young are taken from the parent bird they become, as Azara truly says, 

 " domestic from the first day/' and will follow their owner about like a 

 dog. It is this natural tameness, together with the majesty and quaint 

 grace of its antique form, which makes the destruction of the Rhea so 

 painful to think of. 



When persecuted, Rheas soon acquire a wary habit, and escape by 

 running almost before the enemy has caught a sight of them ; or else 

 crouch down to conceal themselves in the long grass ; and it then be- 

 comes difficult to find them, as they lie close, and will not rise until 

 almost trodden on. Their speed and endurance are so great that, with a 

 fair start, it is almost impossible for the hunter to overtake them, 

 however well mounted. When running, the wings hang down like those 

 of a wounded bird, but usually one wing is raised and held up like a 

 great sail, for what reason it is impossible to say. When hard pressed, 

 the Rhea doubles frequently and rapidly at right angles to its course ; 

 and if the pursuer's horse is not well trained to follow the bird in all its 

 sudden turns without losing ground he is quickly left far behind. 



In the month of July the love-season begins, and it is then that the 

 curious ventriloquial bellowing, booming, and wind-like sounds are 

 emitted by the male. The young males in the flock are attacked and 

 driven off by the old cock-bird ; and when there are two old males they 

 fight for the hens. Their battles are conducted in a rather curious 

 manner, the combatants twisting their long necks together like a couple 

 of serpents, and then viciously biting at each other's heads with their 

 beaks ; meanwhile, they turn round and round in a circle, pounding the 

 earth with their feet, so that where the soil is wet or soft they make a 

 circular trench where they tread. The females of a flock all lay together 

 in a natural depression in the ground, with nothing to shelter it from 

 sight, each hen laying a dozen or more eggs. It is common to find from 

 thirty to sixty eggs in a nest, but sometimes a larger number, and I 

 have heard of a nest being found containing one hundred and twenty 

 eggs. If the f empales are many the cock usually becomes broody before 

 they finish laying, and he then drives them with great fury away and 

 begins to incubate. The hens then drop their eggs about on the plains ; 

 and from the large number of wasted eggs found it seems probable that 

 more are dropped out of than in the nest. The egg when fresh is of a 

 fine golden yellow, but this colour grows paler from day to day, and 

 finally fades to a parchment-white. 



After hatching, the young are assiduously tended and watched over 

 by the cock, and it is then dangerous to approach the Rhea on horse- 

 back, as the bird with neck stretched out horizontally and outspread 



