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RHEA

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 232 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RHEA , the name given in 1752 by P. H. G. Mohring' to a See also:

South See also:American See also:bird which, though See also:long before known and described by the earlier writers—See also:Nieremberg, Marcgrav and See also:Piso (the last of whom has a recognizable but See also:rude figure of it)—had been without any distinctive scientific appellation. Adopted a few years later by M. J. See also:Brisson, the name has since passed into See also:general use, especially among See also:English authors, for what their predecessors had called the American See also:ostrich; but on the See also:European See also:continent the bird is commonly called Nandu,2 a word corrupted from a name it is said to have See also:borne among the aboriginal inhabitants of See also:Brazil, where the Portuguese settlers called it ema (see See also:EMEU). The resemblance of the rhea to the ostrich (q.v.) was at once perceived, but the See also:differences between them are also very evident. The former, for instance, has three instead of two toes on each See also:foot, it has no apparent tail, its wings are far better See also:developed, and when folded See also:cover the See also:body, and its See also:head and See also:neck are clothed with feathers, while See also:internal distinctions of still deeper significance have since been 1 What prompted his bestowal of this name, so well known in classical See also:mythology, is not apparent. 2 The name Touyou, also of South American origin, was applied to it by Brisson and others, but erroneously, as See also:Cuvier shows, since by that name, or something like it, the See also:jabiru (q.v.) is properly meant. dwelt upon by T. H, See also:Huxley (Proc.

Zool. Society, 1867, pp. 420-422) and W. A. See also:

Forbes (op. cit., 1881, pp. 784-87). There can be little doubt that they should be regarded as types of as many orders—Struthiones and Rheae—of the subclass See also:Ratitae. Structural characters no less important See also:separate the rheas from the emeus; the former can be readily recognized by the rounded See also:form of their See also:contour-feathers, which want the hyporrhachis or .after-See also:shaft that in the emeus and cassowaries is so long as to equal the See also:main shaft, and contributes to give these latter See also:groups the See also:appearance of being covered with shaggy See also:hair. The feathers of the rhea have a considerable See also:market value, and for the purpose of See also:trade in them it is annually killed by thousands, so that' its See also:total extinction as a See also:wild See also:animal is probably only a question of See also:time. It is polygamous, and the male performs the See also:duty of See also:incubation, brooding more than a See also:score of eggs, the produce of several See also:females—facts known to Nieremberg Rhea. more than two See also:hundred and fifty years since, but hardly accepted by naturalists until recently. No examples of this bird seem to have been brought to See also:Europe before the beginning of the See also:present See also:century, and accordingly the descriptions previously given of it by systematic writers were taken at second See also:hand and were mostly defective if not misleading.

In 1803 J. Latham issued a wretched figure of the See also:

species ,from a See also:half-grown specimen in the Leverian Museum, and twenty years later said he had seen only one other, and that still younger, in See also:Bullock's collection (Gen. Hist. Birds, viii. p. 379).2 A bird living in confinement at See also:Strassburg in 18o6 was, however, described and figured by See also:Hammer in 18o8 (See also:Ann. du Museum, xii. pp. 427- ' J. E. Harting, in 'his and De Mosenthal's Ostriches and Ostrich Farming, from which the woodcut here introduced is by permission copied, gives (pp. 67—72) some portentous See also:statistics of the destruction of rheas for the See also:sake of their feathers, which, he says, are known in the trade as " Vautour " to distinguish them from those of the See also:African bird. 2 The ninth edition of the See also:Companion to this collection (181o, p. 121) states that the specimen " was brought alive " [?to See also:England].433, pl. 39).

In England the See also:

Report of the Zoological Society for 1833 announced the rhea as having been exhibited for the first time in its gardens during the preceding twelvemonth. Since then many other living examples have been introduced, and it has bred both there and in many private parks in See also:Britain. Though considerably smaller than the ostrich, and wanting its See also:fine plumes, the rhea in general aspect far more resembles that bird than the other Ratitae. The feathers of the head and neck, except on the See also:crown and nape, where they are dark See also:brown, are dingy See also:white, and those of the body ash-coloured tinged with brown, while on the See also:breast they are brownish-See also:black, and on the belly and thighs white. In the course of the memorable voyage of the " Beagle," C. See also:Darwin came to hear of another See also:kind of rhea, called by his informants Avestruz petise, and at See also:Port See also:Desire on the See also:east See also:coast of See also:Patagonia he obtained an example of it, the imperfect skin of which enabled J. See also:Gould to describe it (Proc. Zool. Society, 1837, p. 35) as a second species of the genus, naming it after its , discoverer. Rhea darwini differs in several well-marked characters from the earlier known R. americana. Its See also:bill is shorter than its head; its tarsi are reticulated instead of scutellated in front, with the upper See also:part feathered instead of being See also:bare; and the plumage of its body and wings is very different, each See also:feather being tipped with a distinct whitish See also:band, while that of the head and neck is greyish-brown.

A further distinction is also asserted to be shown by the eggs—those of R. americana being of a yellowish-white, while those of R. darwini have a bluish tinge. Some years afterwards P. L. Sclater described (op. cit., 186o, p. 207) a third and smaller species, closely resembling the R. americana, but having apparently a longer bill, whence he named it R. macrorhyncha, more slender tarsi, and shorter toes, while its general See also:

colour is very much darker, the body and wings being of a brownish-See also:grey mixed with black. The precise See also:geographical range of these three species is still undetermined. While R. americana is known to extend from See also:Paraguay and See also:southern Brazil through the La See also:Plata region to an uncertain distance in Patagonia, R. darwini seems to be the proper inhabitant of the See also:country last named, though M. Claraz asserts (op. cit., 1885, p. 324) that it is occasionally found to the northward of the Rio See also:Negro, which had formerly been regarded as its limit, and, moreover, that flocks of the two species commingled may be very frequently seen in the See also:district between that See also:river and the Rio See also:Colorado. On the " See also:pampas " R. americana is said to See also:associate with herds of See also:deer (Cariacus campestris), and R. darwini to be the See also:constant companion of guanacos (Lama huanaco)—just as in See also:Africa the ostrich seeks the society of zebras and antelopes. As for R. macrorhyncha, it was found by W. A.

Forbes (See also:

Ibis, 1881, pp. 36o, 361) to inhabit the dry and open " sertoes " of See also:north-eastern Brazil, a See also:discovery the more interesting since it was in that part of the country that Marcgrav and Piso became acquainted with a bird of this kind, though the existence of any species of rhea in the district had been long overlooked by or unknown to succeeding travellers. Besides the See also:works above named and those of other recognized authorities on the See also:ornithology of South See also:America such as See also:Azara, See also:Prince Max of Wied, See also:Professor Burmeister and others, more cr less valuable See also:information on the subject is to be found in Darwin's Voyage, Dr Bocking's " Monographie See also:des Nandu " in (Wiegmann's) Archiv See also:fur Naturgeschichte (1863, i. pp. 213-41); R. O. See also:Cunningham's Natural See also:History of the Strait of See also:Magellan and See also:paper in the Zoological Society's Proceedings for 1871 (pp. 105-110), as well as H. F. Gadow's still more important anatomical contributions in the same See also:journal for 1885 (pp. 308 seq.). (A.

End of Article: RHEA

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