Volume Ii Part 42 (2/2)

+Rhea darwini+, _Darwin, Zool. Voy. 'Beagle,'_ iii. p. 123, pl.

xlvii.; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1872, p. 534; _Sclater, Trans. Zool.

Soc._ iv. p. 357, pl. lxx.; _Gadow, P. Z. S._ 1885, p. 308.

+Pterocnemis darwini+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 154.

_Description._--Above red or buff-brown, most of the feathers of the back with white shaft-stripes and wide white margins: beneath, throat and neck buff-brown; rest of under surface whitish; front of tarsus covered on the upper part by small reticulate scutes, on the lower part by transverse scutes: whole length about 360 inches, tarsus 110; tarsus partly feathered.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Head of _Rhea darwini_. (P. Z. S. 1860, p. 209.)]

_Hab._ Patagonia south of the Rio Negro.

Darwin's Rhea inhabits Patagonia from the Straits of Magellan to the Rio Negro, and is also met with occasionally north of that river. The Indians call it ”Molu Chueke”--short or dwarf Chueke; its Spanish name is ”_Avestruz petizo_.” They were formerly very abundant along the Rio Negro; unhappily, some years ago their feathers commanded a very high price; Gauchos and Indians found that hunting the Ostrich was their most lucrative employment; consequently these n.o.ble birds were slaughtered in such numbers that they have been almost exterminated wherever the nature of the country admits of their being chased. When on the Rio Negro in 1871 I was so anxious to obtain specimens of this Rhea that I engaged several Indians by the offer of a liberal reward to hunt for me, but they failed to capture a single adult bird. I can only set down here the most interesting facts I was able to collect concerning its habits, which are very imperfectly known.

When pursued it frequently attempts to elude the sight by suddenly squatting down amongst the bushes, which have a grey foliage, to which the colour of its plumage closely a.s.similates. When hard pressed it possesses the same habit as the Common Rhea of raising the wings alternately and holding them up vertically; and also doubles suddenly like that species. Its speed is greater than that of the Common Rhea, but it is sooner exhausted. In running it carries its neck stretched forward almost horizontally, which makes it seem lower in stature than the allied species,--hence the vernacular name of ”short Ostrich.” It is found in flocks of from three or four to thirty or more individuals.

It begins to lay at the end of July, that is a month before the _Rhea americana_. Several females lay in one nest, which is merely a slight depression lined with a little dry rubbish; as many as fifty eggs are sometimes found in one nest. A great many wasted or _huacho_ eggs, as they are called, are also found at a distance from the nest. I examined a number of eggs brought in by the hunters, and found them vary greatly in shape, size, and colour. The average size of the eggs was the same as those of the Common Rhea; in shape they were more or less elliptical, scarcely any two being precisely alike. The sh.e.l.l has a fine polish, and when newly laid the colour is deep rich green. They soon fade, however, and the side exposed to the sun first a.s.sumes a dull mottled green; then this colour fades to yellowish, and again to pale stone-blue, becoming at last almost white. The comparative age of each egg in the nest may be known by the colour of the sh.e.l.l. The male incubates and rears the young; and the procreant habits seem altogether like those of _Rhea americana_.

The young are hatched with the legs feathered to the toes; these leg-feathers are not shed, but are gradually worn off as the bird grows old by continual friction against the stiff scrubby vegetation. In adults usually a few scattered feathers remain, often worn down to mere stumps; but the hunters told me that old birds are sometimes taken with the legs entirely feathered, and that these birds frequent plains where there is very little scrub. The plumage of the young is dusky grey, without white and black feathers. When a year old they acquire by moulting the mottled plumage of the adults, but do not attain their full size until the third year.

APPENDIX.

I. _List of the princ.i.p.al Authorities upon the Ornithology of the Argentine Republic referred to in the present Work._

AZARA, DON FELIX DE.

Apuntamientos para la historia natural de los paxaros del Paraguay y Rio de la Plata. 3 vols. Madrid, 1802.

Although this celebrated work relates mainly to the neighbouring State of Paraguay, so many birds are common to Paraguay and La Plata that it has of course a most important bearing on the Ornithology of the latter country. Azara, unfortunately, gave only Spanish names to his birds, so that the Latin t.i.tles of them are mostly those of Vieillot, who translated Azara's remarks and gave scientific names to his birds in different volumes of the 'Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle'

(Paris, 1816-19). A most useful Index to Azara's 'Apuntamientos' was published in 1847 by Dr. G. Hartlaub of Bremen[11]. A more modern _resume_ of the Birds of Paraguay, in which much information is contained, has been recently written by Hans, Graf v. Berlepsch[12].

[11] Systematischer Index zu Don Felix de Azara's Apuntamientos para la historia natural de los paxaros del Paraguay y Rio de la Plata.

Bremen, 1847.

[12] Journ. f. Orn. 1887, p. 1.

BARROWS, WALTER B.

Birds of the Lower Uruguay. Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, vol. viii. pp. 82, 128, 198; and The Auk, 1884, pp. 20, 109, 270, and 313.

This excellent observer was resident at Concepcion del Uruguay in 1879 and 1880, and afterwards made an excursion from Buenos Ayres southwards to the Sierra de la Ventana. His notes, many of which are incorporated in the present work, relate to about 200 species.

BURMEISTER, Dr. HERMANN.

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