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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: RAY-RHU |
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RHEA , the name given in 1752 by P. H. G. Mohring' to a South American bird which, though long before known and described by the earlier writersNieremberg, Marcgrav and Piso (the last of whom has a recognizable but rude figure of it)had been without any distinctive scientific appellation. Adopted a few years later by M. J. Brisson, the name has since passed into general use, especially among English authors, for what their predecessors had called the American ostrich; but on the European continent the bird is commonly called Nandu,2 a word corrupted from a name it is said to have borne among the aboriginal inhabitants of Brazil, where the Portuguese settlers called it ema (see EMEU). The resemblance of the rhea to the ostrich (q.v.) was at once perceived, but the differences between them are also very evident. The former, for instance, has three instead of two toes on each foot, it has no apparent tail, its wings are far better developed, and when folded cover the body
1 What prompted his bestowal of this name, so well known in classical mythology, is not apparent. 2 The name Touyou, also of South American origin, was applied to it by Brisson and others, but erroneously, as Cuvier shows, since by that name, or something like it, the jabiru (q.v.) is properly meant. dwelt upon by T. H, Huxley (Proc. Zool. Society, 1867, pp. 420-422) and W. A. Forbes (op. cit., 1881, pp. 784-87). There can be little doubt that they should be regarded as types of as many ordersStruthiones and Rheaeof the subclass Ratitae. Structural characters no less important separate the rheas from the emeus; the former can be readily recognized by the rounded form of their contour-feathers, which want the hyporrhachis or .after- shaft
shaft
hair . The feathers of the rhea have a considerable market value, and for the purpose of trade in them it is annually killed by thousands, so that' its total extinction as a wild animal is probably only a question of time. It is polygamous, and the male performs the duty of incubation, brooding more than a score of eggs, the produce of several femalesfacts known to NierembergRhea. more than two hundred and fifty years since, but hardly accepted by naturalists until recently. No examples of this bird seem to have been brought to Europe before the beginning of the present century, and accordingly the descriptions previously given of it by systematic writers were taken at second hand and were mostly defective if not misleading. In 1803 J. Latham issued a wretched figure of the species ,from a half-grown specimen in the Leverian Museum, and twenty years later said he had seen only one other, and that still younger, in Bullock's collection (Gen. Hist. Birds, viii. p. 379).2 A bird living in confinement at Strassburg in 18o6 was, however, described and figured by Hammer
' 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. 6772) some portentous statistics of the destruction of rheas for the sake of their feathers, which, he says, are known in the trade as " Vautour " to distinguish them from those of the African bird. 2 The ninth edition of the Companion to this collection (181o, p. 121) states that the specimen " was brought alive " [?to England].433, pl. 39). In England the 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 Britain. Though considerably smaller than the ostrich, and wanting its 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 crown and nape, where they are dark brown, are dingy white, and those of the body
east
Paraguay
district
Ibis
district
Besides the works above named and those of other recognized authorities on the ornithology of South America such as Azara
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 journal for 1885 (pp. 308 seq.).(A. N.) End of Article: RHEA If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/RAY_RHU/RHEA.html"> RHEA </a> |
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