560 



FLIGHTLESS BIRDS. 



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 UHElDvE. 



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 

 distinguished 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 proportionately longer, and are covered with long, slender 

 plumes. Agreeing with the ostriches in the. absence of after-shafts to the feathers, 

 in their pale-coloured eggs, and in the superiority in size of the male over the 

 female, the rheas are further distinguished by certain peculiarities in regard to the 

 bones at the base of the skull, and likewise by the circumstance that the ischia, or 



hinder lower bones of 

 the pelvis, meet in a 

 symphysis in the middle 

 line, instead of the pubes 

 doing so. The flattened 

 beak is broad at the base 

 and rounded at the tip, 

 where it has a curved 

 nail-like sheath ; and the 

 extremity of the wing 

 has a horny process. The 

 lores and region round 

 the eye, as well as a ring 

 round the aperture of the 

 ear, are devoid of feathers, 

 the ear aperture being 

 clothed with bristles. 

 On the head and neck 



the feathers are small, thin, and pointed; while those of the body are large, 

 broad, and rounded, although so soft that no distinct vanes are formed. In 

 .coloration the two sexes are very similar, although the female is generally 

 .somewhat paler than her consort. The best known, and at the same time the most 

 abundant, of the three species by which the single genus is now represented, 

 is the common rhea (Rhea americana), inhabiting the pampas of Argentina and 

 Patagonia. This species is far inferior in size to the ostrich, but it is the 

 largest of the three. Black on the crown of the head and nape, as well as on 

 portions of the upper neck and the fore-breast, with yellow and bluish grey on 

 the sides and other parts of the neck, the general colour of the plumage on the 

 back, sides of the breast, and wings, is brownish ashy grey in the cock : while the 



HEAD OF COMMON EHEA. 



(From Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1860.) 



