10 ■ BIRD GALLERY. 



r,^ Order 11. RHEIFORMES. Rhea-tribe. 



[Uaaes 



& ^'j In South America the place of the Ostriches of the Old World is 

 taken by an allied group of birds called Rheas, or "American Ostriches/' 

 which are distinguished by certain structural characters, and externally 

 by the presence of three toes furnished with compressed claws, by the 

 fully-feathered head and neck, and by the absence of a conspicuously 

 feathered tail. The wings also are proportionately larger, and are 

 covered with long slender plumes. As in the Struthionida, the 

 body-feathers are single, without an aftershaft, a character which 

 separates these birds from the Emus and Cassowaries. 



Family Rheid^. Rheas. 



The Rheas include three South American species, viz. : — Roth- 

 schild's Rhea {Rhea rothschildi) (4), found from Southern Brazil and 

 Bolivia southwards; the Great-billed Rhea [R. americana) inhabiting 

 North-east Brazil; and Darwin's Rhea (Pterocnemia pennata) (6), 

 from the southern part of the continent. All bear considerable 

 resemblance to their African allies, and are often called " South 

 American Ostriches," but they are smaller and easily distinguished 

 by the characters already mentioned. 



They inhabit the great Pampas and scrub-covered plains in larger or 

 smaller flocks, often associating with deer and guanacos. In the month 

 6f July the pairing-season begins, and the males then utter a deep 

 resonant booming noise and give vent to various weird sounds. The 

 young males are driven from the flock, and the cock birds fight viciously 

 with one another for the possession of the females. The battles are 

 conducted in a curious manner, the combatants twisting their long 

 necks together and biting at each other's heads with their beaks, while 

 they turn round and round in a circle, pounding the ground with their 

 feet. The females of the flock all lay together in a natural depression 

 of the ground, each hen laying a dozen or more eggs. If the females 

 ♦ are many, the male usually drives them away before they finish laying, 



and commences to sit. The hens then drop their eggs about the plains, 

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

 that more are dropped out of the nest than in it. The colour of the 

 • egg when fresh is a fine golden yellow. The young when hatched are 

 assiduously tended and watched over by the cock-bird, who charges 

 an intruder with outstretched wings. 



Rheas take readily to water, and can swim across a river several 

 hundred yards wide, the body being almost entirely submerged. Tliey 

 are easily acclimatized, and often kept in parks in this country, where 

 they frequently breed. The feathers are of little commercial value. 



