(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.
[Illustration: Head of _Rhea americana_. (P. Z. S. 1860, p. 208.)]
_Hab._ Pampas of S. America north of Rio Negro.
The Common Rhea (called "_Ñandú_" in the Guarani language, "_Chueké_" by
the pampas Indians, and "Ostrich" by Europeans) is found throughout
the Argentine Republic down to the Rio Negro in Patagonia, and,
in decreasing numbers, and associating with Darwin's Rhea, to a
considerable distance south of that river. Until within very recent
times it was very abundant on the pampas, and I can remember the
time when it was common within forty miles of Buenos Ayres city. But
it is now becoming rare, and those who wish to have a hand in its
extermination must go to a distance of three or four hundred miles from
the Argentine capital before they can get a sight of it.
The Rhea is peculiarly well adapted, in its size, colour, faculties, and
habits, to the conditions of the level woodless country it inhabits; its
lofty stature, which greatly exceeded that of any of its enemies before
the appearance of the European mounted hunter, enables it to see far;
its dim grey plumage, the colour of the haze, made it almost invisible
to the eye at a distance, the long neck being so slender and the bulky
body so nearly on a level with the tall grasses; while its speed
exceeded that of all other animals inhabiting the same country. When
watching the chase of Ostriches in the desert pampas, abounding in giant
grasses, it struck me forcibly that this manner of hunting the bird on
horseback had brought to light a fault in the Rhea--a point in which the
correspondence between the animal and its environment is not perfect.
The Rhea runs smoothly on the surface, and where the tall grass-tussocks
are bound together, as is often the case, with slender twining plants,
its legs occasionally get entangled, and the bird falls prostrate, and
before it can struggle up again the hunter is close at hand and able to
throw the _bolas_--the thong and balls, which, striking the bird with
great force, wind about its neck, wings, and legs, and prevent its
escape. When I questioned Ostrich-hunters as to this point they said
that it was true that the Rhea often falls when running hotly pursued
through long grass, and that the deer (_Cervus campestris_) never falls
because it leaps over the large tussocks and all such obstructions. This
small infirmity of the Rhea would not, however, have told very much
against it if some moderation had been observed in hunting it, or if the
Argentine Government had thought fit to protect it; but in La Plata, as
in North America and South Africa, the licence to kill, which every one
possesses, has been exercised with such zeal and fury that in a very few
more years this noblest Avian type of the great bird-continent will be
as unknown on the earth as the Moa and the _Æpyornis_.
The Rhea lives in bands of from three or four to twenty or thirty
individuals. Where they are not persecuted they show no fear of man, and
come about the houses, and are as familiar and tame as domestic animals.
Sometimes they become too familiar. At one _estancia_ I remember an old
cock-bird that constantly came alone to feed near the gate, and that had
so great an animosity against the human figure in petticoats, that the
women of the house could not go out on foot or horseback without a man
to defend them from its attacks. When the young are taken from the
parent bird they become, as Azara truly says, "domestic from the first
day," and will follow their owner about like a dog. It is this natural
tameness, together with the majesty and quaint grace of its antique
form, which makes the destruction of the Rhea so painful to think of.
When persecuted, Rheas soon acquire a wary habit, and escape by running
almost before the enemy has caught a sight of them; or else crouch down
to conceal themselves in the long grass; and it then becomes difficult
to find them, as they lie close, and will not rise until almost trodden
on. Their speed and endurance are so great that, with a fair start,
it is almost impossible for the hunter to overtake them, however well
mounted. When running, the wings hang down like those of a wounded bird,
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 dozen or more eggs. It is common to
find from 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 about on the plains;
and from the large number of wasted eggs found it seems probable that
more are dropped out of than in the nest. The egg when fresh is of a
fine golden yellow, but this colour grows paler from day to day, and
finally fades to a parchment-white.
After hatching, the young are assiduously tended and watched over by the
cock, and it is then dangerous to approach the Rhea on horseback, as the
bird with neck stretched out horizontally and outspread wings charges
suddenly, making so huge and grotesque a figure that the tamest horse
becomes ungovernable with terror.
Eagles and the large Polyborus are the enemies the Rhea most fears when
the young are still small, and at the sight of one flying overhead he
crouches down and utters a loud snorting cry, whereupon the scattered
young birds run in the greatest terror to shelter themselves under his
wings.