THE SOUTH AMERICAN RHEA 



{Rhea ajnericana.) 



In a work on the genera of birds, pub- 

 lished in 1752 'at Aurich, Germany, 

 Mohring gave to this South American 

 bird the name Rhea. The bird, however, 

 had long been known and even described 

 by earlier writers, none of whom had 

 even thought to give it a special scien- 

 tific name. It seems strange that Moh- 

 ring should have used the name Rhea as 

 the generic title of these birds. It is a 

 classical mythological name, well known, 

 but its application to birds is hardly ap- 

 parent, unless it is due to the classical 

 belief that Rhea, who was the mother 

 of Zeus and the other great gods of 

 Olympus, was looked upon as the mother 

 and producer of all plant life. "She was 

 also believed to exercise unbounded 

 sway over the animal creation, more es- 

 pecially over the lion, the noble king of 

 beasts. Rhea is generally represented 

 •wearing a crown of turrets or towers and 

 seated on a throne, with lions crouching 

 at her feet." It may be that Mohring 

 looking upon this American bird as pow- 

 erful gave it the name of this noted god- 

 dess. 



Because of the resemblance of the 

 Rheas to the ostriches they are common- 

 ly called American Ostriches. The two 

 groups of birds, however, are at least 

 separate families of birds, and by some 

 observers of the habits and characteris- 

 tics of the Rheas and the ostriches it is 

 considered that the two birds are even 

 more widely separated and distantly re- 

 lated. The Rheas, or American Ostriches, 

 have three toes which end in claws, while 

 the true ostriches of the Old World have 

 but two toes which end in short nails. 

 The Rheas are also characterized by 

 fully feathered heads and necks and they 

 have no tail, while the ostriches have a 

 practically naked neck and a tail of white 

 feathers. There are also structural dif- 

 ferences which are not so easily seen. 

 The Rheas do not possess plumes or 

 feathers which are such a beautiful 



adornment of ostriches. Their feathers, 

 however, have quite a market value and 

 large numbers have been killed each year 

 until now it has been exterminated from 

 • considerable of the area which the spe- 

 cies once inhabited. 



In some ways the general habits of the 

 Rheas resemble those of the ostriches, 

 but they are more gregarious. It is said 

 that these birds sometimes associate with 

 herds of deer on the pampas of their 

 range, in the same manner as the os- 

 triches in Africa seem to be fond of as- 

 sociating with zebras and antelopes. 



The Rheas are polygamous, and as a 

 rule, each male is associated with five or 

 a few more hens. It is also known that 

 the male performs the duties of incuba- 

 tion sitting upon the eggs laid by his 

 several mates. Mr. Charles Darwin has 

 given the following excellent account of 

 some of the breeding habits of the Rheas 

 based on his observations made as nat- 

 uralist to Her Majesty's Ship Beagle on 

 an exploring voyage around the world 

 during the years 1831 to 1836. He 

 writes : ''When we were at Bahia Blanca 

 (Argentina) in the months of September 

 and October, the eggs, in extraordinary 

 numbers, were found all over the coun- 

 try. They lie either scattered and single, 

 in which case they are never hatched, 

 and are called by the Spaniards huachos, 

 or they are collected into a shallow exca- 

 vation, which forms the nest. Out of 

 the four nests which I saw, three con- 

 tained twenty-two eggs each, and the 

 fourth twenty-seven. In one day's hunt- 

 ing on horseback, sixty-four eggs were 

 found ; forty-four of these were in two 

 nests, and the remaining twenty scat- 

 tered huachos." Mr. Darwin also states 

 that the Peasantry and Herdsmen 

 (Gauchos) "unanimously affirm, and 

 there is no reason to doubt their state- 

 ment, that the male bird alone hatches 

 the eggs, and for some time afterward 

 accompanies the young." He also says 



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