280 BRANCH CHORDATA 



the soil or sand and one nest may contain as many as twenty- 

 five or thirty eggs, several hens laying in one nest. The male 

 does most of the incubating, the eggs hatching in from forty to 

 forty-five days. The ostrich is a native of Africa. It is found 

 from Barbary to Arabia and even into Mesopotamia, where it 

 has long been domesticated. "The plumes are plucked or, 

 preferably, cut twice a year." The flesh is coarse and little 



Fig. 22S.— Ostriches five days old. (Year-book U. S. Dept. Agricul., 1905.) 



used. The yearly sales in South Africa amount to nearly five 

 million dollars. 



The three-toed rhea, or so-called ostrich, is a South American 

 bird. Rheas are shorter than the ostrich and the feathers are 

 rounded and very soft. Their favorite haunts are the "treeless 

 flats of the Argentine Pampas, the scrub-covered plains of Pata- 

 gonia, or the dry open sertoes of Brazil."^ 



The cassowaries and emus have rudimentary \vings, and they 

 lack the ornamental wing and tail plumes. The hair-like coat 

 is characteristic. The female cassowary is larger than the male, 

 and both sexes are black. The plumage is made into rugs, mats, 

 and head ornaments. 



^ Evans, " Birds." 



