102 ' LITTLE FOLKS 
These birds are very valuable to the people where they live, 
and are hunted with the lasso, and sometimes with dogs. The 
flesh is eaten, and the fat made into oil. Of the skin of the neck, 
bags are made, and the poorer feathers are woven into beautiful 
rugs. The best feathers are almost as valuable as those of the 
African Ostrich, and the next in quality are made into dust 
brushes. 
The eggs also are much liked. One Nandu egg is equal to 
fifteen hen's eggs, and it cooks in its own shell, in the same way as 
those of his African namesake. 
They are said to live fifteen years, and are easily tamed, being 
in fact, afraid of nothing but an Indian, whom they seem to recog- 
nize as an enemy at once. 
