While Mary and Elena are one day tending to the goats, Spillet encounters a giant flightless bird (a prehistoric species called a "Phorusrhacos") while fishing. Spillet and the women retreat into the goat pen, but the bird simply jumps over the fence and assails them. As it tries to eat Elena, Herbert arrives and attacks the creature, knifing it until he apparently kills it. Later, as they consume the bird, they discover it was actually killed by a bullet none of them had fired.