File:Birds of the world for young people (1909) (14745658581).jpg

Identifier: cu31924090293030 (find matches)
Title: Birds of the world for young people
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Knight, Charles Robert, 1874-1953 Hardcastle, Ella
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, F.A. Stokes Company
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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n the plumage of the young and thefully adult bird. Like its relatives, the Emu andthe Cassowary, the Rhea has three toes, all placedat the front of the foot. As in the case of the formerbirds also, the male undertakes the duties of incuba-tion and the care of the chicks. Several hens combineand lay their eggs in one nest, so that the male is atlast left to brood about twenty eggs. These aregolden yellow in colour, in contrast to the eggs of theEmu and the Cassowary, which are a beautiful green.Some specimens of this bird in the Zoological Park,at Washington, had the curious habit, when angry orexcited, of crouching upon the ground and spreadingout their wings to the fullest extent. The natives of South America pursue the Rhea onhorseback and capture it by hurling the bolas—stonesfastened to the ends of lines which are hurled by thehunter and twine around the legs of the birds, quicklybringing them to the ground. See Plate 28, Fig. 158. 159. Helmeted Cassowary(Castuiriu.i galeahui).
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157. Ostrich fStrut/iio camelus). 160 Kiwi (Aptenjr mantelli). OSTRICH The voices of all the Ostrich-like birds are rathersingular, consisting of a deep booming note utteredwith the mouth apparently closed, and seeming tocome from the chest. The African Ostrich is the giant among livingbirds, the male standing some eight feet high, andexceeding the female in size, wherein he differs fromthe other Ostrich-like birds so far described. TheAfrican Ostrich is also unlike all his relatives in thathe is conspicuously different from his mate in coloura-tion, having the body clothed in a livery of glossyblack, relieved by the pure white of the wing- and tail-feathers, which are the plumes so highly prized formillinery purposes. The head and neck are almostbare of feathers, while the massive legs are absolutelynaked. The plumage of the female is of a soberbrown hue. In the possession of a tail the AfricanOstrich is also peculiar among his tribe. As in theRhea, the wings are of relatively large

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