Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/524

Rh 506 K H E A extinction as a wild animal is probably only a question of time. Its breeding habits are precisely those which have been already described in the case of other Ratite birds. Like most of them it is polygamous, and the male performs the duty of incubation, brooding more than a score of eggs, the produce of several females facts known to Nieremberg more than two hundred and fifty years since, but hardly accepted by naturalists until recently. From causes which, if explicable, do not here concern us, 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 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). 1 A bird living in confinement at Strasburg in 1806 was, however, described and figured by Hammer in 1808 (Ann. du Museum, xii. pp. 427-433, pi. 39), and, though he does not expressly say so, we may infer from his account that it had been a captive for some years. 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 elsewhere in Britain, but the young do not seem to be very easily reared. 2 Though considerably smaller than the Ostrich, and, as before stated, wanting its fine plumes, the Rhea in general aspect far more resembles that bird than the other Ratitx. 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 ash-coloured tinged with brown, while on the breast they are brownish-black, and on the belly and thighs white. In the course of the memorable voyage of the "Beagle," Darwin came to hear of another kind of Rhea, called by his informants A vestruz petise, and at Port Desire on the east coast of Patagonia he obtained an example of it, the imperfect skin of which enabled Mr 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 bill is shorter than its head ; its tarsi are reticulated instead of scutellated in front, with the upper part feathered instead of being bare ; and the plumage of its body and wings is very different, each feather being tipped with a distinct whitish band, while that of the head and neck is greyish-brown. A further distinction is also asserted to be shewn by the eggs those of R. americana being of a yellowish-white, while those of R. darwini have a bluish tinge. Some years afterwards Mr Sclater described (op. cit., 1860, p. 207) a third and smaller species, more 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 colour is very much darker, the body and wings being of a brownish-grey mixed with black. The precise geographical range of these three species is still undetermined. While R. americana is known to extend from Paraguay and southern Brazil through the state of La Plata to an uncertain distance in Patagonia, R. darwini seems to be the proper inhabitant of the country last named, though 1 The ninth edition of the Companion to this collection (1810, p. 121) states that the specimen "was brought alive" [? to England]. 3 Interesting accounts of the breeding of this bird in confinement are given, with much other valuable matter, by Mr Harting in the work already cited. M. Claraz asserts (op. cit., 1885, p. 324) that it is occasion- ally found to the northward of the Rio 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 district between that river and the Rio Colorado. On the " pampas " R. americana is said to associate with herds of deer (Cariacus campestris), and R. darwini to be the constant companion of guanacos (Lama huanaco) just as in Africa the Ostrich seeks the society of zebras and antelopes. As for R. macrorhyncha, it was found by Forbes (Ibis, 1881, pp. 360, 361) to inhabit the dry and open " sertoes " of north-eastern Brazil, a discovery the more interesting since it was in that part of the country that Marcgrave 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 works above named and those of other recognized authorities on the ornithology of South America such as Azara, Prince Max of Wied, Prof. Burmeister, and others, more or less valu- able information on the subject is to be found in Darwin's Voyage ; Dr Booking's " Monographic des Nandu" in (Wiegmann's) Arthfa fiir Naturgescliichte (18(53, i. pp. 213-241); Prof. R. 0. Cunning- ham's Natural History of the Strait of Magellan and paper in the Zoological Society's Proceedings for 1871 (pp. 105-110), as well as Dr Gadow's still more important anatomical contributions in the same journal for 1885 (pp. 308 sq. }. (A. N.) RHEA (or RHEEA) FIBRE is a textile material yielded by one or more species of Bohmeria (nat. ord. Urticacese), plants found over a wide range in India, China, the Malay Peninsula and islands, and Japan. Rhea is also capable of being grown in temperate latitudes, and has been experi- mentally introduced into the south of France and Algeria. The most important source of rhea fibre, known also very inappropriately as China grass, or by its Malay name Ramie, is B. nivea. It is a shrubby plant growing to the height of from 5 to 8 feet with foliage and inflorescence like the common nettle, but destitute of stinging hairs. Some authorities consider the variety cultivated in China to be specifically distinct from the Indian plant. An allied plant called Pooah or Puya, B. Puya, found growing wild in the north of India, is also a source of rhea fibre. Among the Chinese much care is bestowed on the cultiva- tion of Chu or Tchou Ma, as rhea is called by them, and they prepare the fibre by a tedious and costly process of selection and manual labour. The plant thrives in hot, moist, shaded situations ; propagated from slips or root cuttings, it throws up from three to five crops of stems in the course of a season, although not more than three crops are commonly reckoned on. Each such crop may yield about 250 R) of marketable fibre per acre, that total output being exceeded only by the jute crop. The stems when ripe are cut down, stripped of leaves and branchlets, and, either split or whole, are freed from their cortical layers till the bast layer is exposed. In this state they are made up in small bundles and placed where they receive strong sunlight by day and dews by night for several days, after which the fibrous bast layer is peeled with ease off the woody core, and the separated fibres arc thereafter treated with boiling water to remove as far as possible adherent gummy and resinous matter in which the fibres are em- bedded in the stalks. The fibre so obtained is usually bleached by exposure on the grass, and it comes into the market as brilliant white filaments with a fine silky gloss, having a strength, lustre, and smoothness unequalled by any other vegetable fibre. The fibre first appeared in the European market in 1810, and a cord then spun from it was found to sustain a weight of 252 lt>, while a similar cord of Russian hemp was estimated by Admiralty test not to bear more than 87 lb. A fibre possessed of such strength and beauty immediately attracted great attention, and throughout the early half of the century numerous efforts were made by the East India Company to introduce it as a textile staple. But many difii-