THE OSTRICH 27 



The hunter will get his shot, but whether he will bring 

 down his bird is another question, so well protected is 

 the Rhea by his thick coat of feathers. 



Perhaps that is one of the reasons why the gaudto (who 

 has a true cowboy's expertness with anything like a lasso) 

 prefers to use the "bolas" or balls. These are either a 

 couple of round stones covered with leather, or oval balls 

 of lead or bronze. The balls are linked together by a yard 

 or more of thong — thin strips of raw hide — and the horse- 

 man rides hard at the Rhea, whirling the bolas round his 

 head. 



Suddenly he lets fly, with unerring aim, either at 

 the long neck or the legs of the running bird. The thong, 

 as in the flick of a whip, winds itself round the fugitive, 

 who usually falls to the ground. 



It is said that since the number of wild Rheas de- 

 creased so greatly, the native hunters have become much 

 less expert with the bolas. 



Darwin, the great naturalist and thinker, came across 

 the Rhea when he went to South America. He was 

 struck by the bird's swimming powers. In Patagonia, a 

 friend told him that at one place on the coast he had seen 

 Rheas in the bay " swimming from island to island : the 

 distance crossed was about two hundred yards." And he 

 himself saw several crossing the Santa Cruz River " where 

 its course was about four hundred yards wide and the 

 stream rapid." 



Some of these Patagonian Rheas which he saw coming 

 down at low tide to the mud banks, at one bay, were said 

 to fancy a change of diet in the form of small fish which 

 they found in the pools and shallows. 



An Ostrich eating fish sounds odd enough, but indeed 

 the Rhea has the family digestion, and can eat the most 



