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. [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.