THE AMERICAN OSTRICH. 353 



CHAPTER XI. 



ANIMAL LIFE IX THE PRAIRIES OF THE NEW WORLD: 



BIRDS AND REPTILES. 



WE have seen in a preceding chapter that the great terrestrial and 

 aquatic birds ("Waders") of the wild plains of the Ancient World have 

 few analogues in America, and that the small number of genera which 

 are represented therein are represented by much smaller species. I 

 have cited the Ostrich and the Phenicopterus. The American Ostrich, 

 or Nandou (Rhea), is not above half the size of his African congener, 

 from which he differs in having the feet three-toed, and each toe 

 armed with a claw. Moreover, his head and neck are more fully 

 clothed with plumage ; the wings are plumed, and more perfectly 

 developed ; and he is tailless. The neck has sixteen vertebrae. 

 Though endowed with more perfect wings than the Ostrich of Africa, 

 he is nevertheless incapable of flight, representing another grade in 

 Nature's slow ascent from the wingless bird to the bird possessed of 

 full powers of flight. He inhabits the wide grassy plains of South 

 America below the Equator, and as far south as latitude 42 . He is 

 never seen across the Cordilleras, but roams in great numbers the 

 banks of La Plata and its tributaries. He is generally seen in small 

 troops. 



There are at least three species : the Rhea Americana, about 

 five feet high ; the Rhea macrorhyncha, distinguished by its large 

 bill ; and the Rhea Darwinii, the smallest, which inhabits Patagonia. 



The Flamingoes proper to the New World are : the Bed Flamingo, 

 all whose plumage glows with a more or less vivid red; and the 

 Fiery Flamingo, probably only a variety of the preceding. Both are 

 natives of the dreary Patagonian desert, of Chili, and some other 

 southern districts. 



The order of Waders, and that of Palmipeds, include, in the low 

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