Notes on the Habits of the Rhea. 201 
A second call of the parent appears to give warning of danger from 
above. This sound can be well represented by keeping the lips apart and 
allowing the tongue and lips to vibrate as the breath is violently expelled. 
Upon hearing the sound, the young birds feeding in the vicinity of the 
parent flock together, every head being tilted upward to see from where 
and from what the danger proceeds. At the same time the wings are 
somewhat outspread, and the few white plumes upon them droop toward 
the ground; the body of the bird by this process appearing almost twice 
its usual size. I found this cry very useful with a small flock of young 
birds I once had. Indians would carelessly leave the gate to my vegetable 
garden open, and the flock would get in and sample the salads. The 
easiest and quickest way to get them out was for me to stand imitating this 
ery at the gate, and when I had got them bunched together to retire from 
the garden continually crying. Invariably the birds followed me, all on 
the watch for danger above. 
A third cry is a low whistle which causes every young bird to stop 
eating, stand erect, and look across the country. 
I found the young birds to dwell in unity with each other; but when 
the males were a year old they showed signs of pugnacity, and in the 
second year, during the mating season, one bird attacked anything—man or 
beast. Excessive gambolling on their part in the early morning was as sure 
a sign of an approaching change of weather as a falling barometer. They 
invariably dusted themselves before settling down to sleep, and at sundown 
after a very hot day they would stand in the shade, spread out their wings 
to their fullest extent, and raise every feather on their body. Adult birds 
in their natural state behave in a similar way, and at such a time seem 
to be very stupid and not so alert, since they allow one to get within easy 
range of them. In a blazing midday sun they feed out in the open 
unaffected by the heat, but in the evening they apparently feel the necessity 
to cool down and are less wary. 
Their method of attack upon a small animal was shown one day when 
I found my biggest bird trying to knock the life out of a small kid. Its 
method was to rush over the kid with all its plumes drooping, the white ones 
quite concealing the legs, then having knocked the kid down, to seize it by 
the nape of the neck and throw it over. My birds usually accompanied the 
flock of goats and sheep when they went to pasture, but this particular Rhea, 
apparently finding the kid alone, and perhaps failing to recognise the species, 
or thinking it would be a harmless specimen to practise an attack upon, 
did so, and persisted until I was satisfied as to its attacking tactics and 
drove it off. 
