356 DR. SCLATER ON THE STRUTHIOUS BIRDS 



Of the Common American Rhea we have an adult female, from which the figure has 

 been taken. She is kept in company with the male of the next species. 



2. Rhea macrorhyncha. (PI. LXIX.) 



Rhea macrorhyncha, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1860, p. 20?. 

 In November 1858 the late Mr. Thompson purchased for the Society, in Liverpool, a 

 young Rhea, which now seems to have nearly attained its adult growth. It proves to 

 be so remarkably different from the Common Rhea {Rhea americana) and the Darwin's 

 Rhea {Rhea darwinii), examples of which are kept in the same inclosure with it, that I 

 have little hesitation in characterizing it as of a different species ; and in so doing I 

 believe I have the concurrence of Mr. Gould, Mr. Bartlett, and other naturalists who 

 have had an opportunity of examining the bird. 



Fig. 2. 

 The Long-billed Rhea {Rhea macrorhyncha), as I propose to call it, is a much smaller 

 bird than the Common Rhea. The example in the Gardens (a male) stands about 

 6 inches lower than the female of the American Rhea which is in its company ; 

 and we may reasonably suppose that the female is proportionately smaller. The bill is 

 much longer than that of the Common Rhea, as may be seen from the drawings (wood- 

 cuts, figs. 1,2,3), which represent the heads of the three species ; and the head-feathers 

 are longer and more closely flattened down. On the other hand, the tarsi are much 

 more slender, and the toes much shorter. The thighs are less thickly clothed than in 

 the Common Rhea ; but the scutellation of the tarsi seems to be nearly the same in 

 both these birds, and offers a marked contrast to that of Rhea darwinii, in which the 

 tarsi are for the greater part covered with reticulated scales. The feathers of the body 

 are longer in the Long-billed Rhea, and curve round it, hiding the outline, in a manner 

 not observable in the Common Rhea. With regard to colouring the new species is 



