THE OSTRICH AND ITS KINDRED 



387 



by ceaseless pursuit. A chase of this kind may last an hour and a half. Needless to say, for 



sport of this kind both horses and dogs must be the best of their kind and 



good 



form." The natives and Indians hunt them on horseback with the " bolas." The bolas, or 

 balls, used for this purpose consist of two round stones covered with leather, and united by 

 a thong of about 8 feet long. One of these is held in the hand and the other whirled round 

 the head and suddenly released, when both go whirling madly round till they strike the rhea's 

 legs, around which they instantly twist, and the victim is a fast prisoner. 



The rhea is in danger of disappearing altogether as a wild bird, owing to the ruthless 

 slaughter which is made upon it for the sake of its feathers. For some years back, 

 Mr. Harting tells us, " the number of birds killed has averaged 400,000 per annum, and, as 

 a consequence, the species has already disappeared from nearly half the territory of the River 

 Plate." On some estates in Argentina the wild birds are driven in and plucked. 



Like most of the Ostrich Tribe, the male alone performs the duties of incubation, hatching 





Phttt by J. r. i^,wmarC\ 



IBerlhamilid 



RHEAS IN TRING PARK 



In spite of its large size, the rhea is not a conspicuous bird in a ivild statCy the gre\^ plumage harmonising perfectly %uith the surrounding pampas 



some twenty eggs at a time, the produce of several different females. There are three different 

 kinds of rhea, but they do not differ much one from another. The young are curiously 

 striped. The egg is very large, of a cream colour, and deeply pitted. 



Darwin, in his " Voyage of the Beagle," tells us that when he was " at Bahia Blanca, in 

 the months of September and October, the eggs, in extraordinary numbers, were found all over 

 the country. They lie either scattered and single, in which case they are never hatched, and 

 are called by the Spaniards huachos ; or they are collected together into a shallow excavation 

 which forms the nest. Out of the four nests which I saw, three contained twenty-two eggs 

 each, and the fourth twenty-seven. In one day's hunting on horseback sixty-four eggs were 

 found : forty-four of these were in two nests, and the remaining twenty scattered huachos. 

 The Gauchos unanimously affirm — and there is no reason to doubt their statement — that the 

 male bird alone hatches the eggs, and for some time afterwards accompanies the young. The 

 cock, when on the nest, lies very close : I have myself almost ridden over one. It is asserted 

 that at such times they are occasionally fierce and even dangerous, and that they have been 



