COMMON RHEA 333 



is running, the wings hang down as if injured, 

 but usually one wing is raised and held up like a 

 great sail, for what reason it is impossible to say. 

 When hard pressed, the Rhea doubles frequently 

 and rapidly at right angles to its course ; and if the 

 pursuer's horse is not well trained to follow the bird 

 in all its sudden turns without losing ground he is 

 quickly left far behind. 



In the month of July the love-season begins, and 

 it is then that the curious ventriloquial bellowing, 

 booming, and wind-like sounds are emitted by the 

 male. The young males in the flock are attacked 

 and driven off by the old cock-bird ; and when 

 there are two old males they fight for the hens. Their 

 battles are conducted in a rather curious manner, 

 the combatants twisting their long necks together 

 like a couple of serpents, and then viciously biting 

 at each other's heads with their beaks ; meanwhile 

 they turn round and round in a circle, pounding 

 the earth with their feet, so that where the soil is 

 wet or soft they make a circular trench where they 

 tread. The females of a flock all lay together in a 

 natural depression in the ground, with nothing to 

 shelter it from sight, each hen laying a do^en or more 

 eggs. It is common to find thirty to sixty eggs in a 

 nest, but sometimes a larger number, and I have 

 heard of a nest being found containing one hundred 

 and twenty eggs. If the females are many the cock 

 usually becomes broody before they finish laying, 

 and he then drives them with great fury away and 

 begins to incubate. The hens then drop their eggs 



