It is probable, I think, that this species possesses some curious procreant habits, and that more than one female lays in each nest; but owing to the excessive wariness of the bird in a state of nature it is next to impossible to find out anything about it. No doubt the day will come when naturalists will find the advantage of domesticating the birds the life-histories of which they wish to learn: may it come before all the most interesting species on the globe are extinct!
[Order XX. STRUTHIONES.]
[ Fam. LIV. RHEIDÆ, or RHEAS.]
The Order of Struthious Birds or Ostriches is represented in South America by the Nandu or Rhea, which is at once distinguished from the African Ostrich (Struthio) by having three toes instead of two, as also by many other important points of structure.
Both the known species of Rhea are found within our limits.
[433.] RHEA AMERICANA, Lath.
(COMMON RHEA.)
Rhea americana, Darwin, Zool. Voy. ‘Beagle,’ iii. p. 120; Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 500; Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 154; Sclater, Trans. Zool. Soc. iv. p. 355, pl. lxviii.; Gadow, P. Z. S. 1885, p. 308.
Description.—Above, head blackish; neck whitish, becoming black at the base of the neck and between the shoulders; rest slaty grey: beneath, throat and upper neck whitish, becoming black at the base of the neck, whence arise two black lateral crescents, one on either side of the upper breast; rest of under surface whitish; front of tarsus throughout covered with broad transverse scutes: whole length about 52·0 inches, tarsus 12·0; tarsus bare.
