16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
'So do I. We call it and its cousin tuya.'
'I believe it is one of Latham's tinamous.'
'I am sure you are right. A very curious thing
about the tuya is that the cock-bird broods the
eggs, sometimes the eggs of several hens, like
the rhea. Possibly there is some connexion.'
'Sure the bill is not unlike... But you will never
tell me you have rheas at this exorbitant
height?'
'We certainly have, and higher still. Not the
blundering great rheas of the pampas, but fine
grey birds that stand no more than four feet
high and run like the wind. God willing I shall
bring you in sight of some on the altiplano,
soon after we leave the monastery.'
'How good and kind you are, dear Eduardo.
I look forward to it with the keenest anticipation,'
said Stephen; and having felt the bird's
skeleton under its plump breast, 'I fairly long