1 834.] A NEW OSTRICH. 249 



C. Darwin to J. S. Henslow. 



East Falkland Island, March, 1834. 



I am quite charmed with Geology, but, like the 



wise animal between two bundles of hay, I do not know 

 which to like the best ; the old crystalline group of rocks, or 

 the softer and fossiliferous beds. When puzzling about strati- 

 fication, &c., I feel inclined to cry " a fig for your big oysters, 

 and your bigger megatheriums." But then when digging out 

 some fine bones, I wonder how any man can tire his arms 

 with hammering granite. By the way I have not one clear 

 idea about cleavage, stratification, lines of upheaval. I have 

 no books which tell me much, and what they do I cannot 

 apply to what I see. In consequence I draw my own con- 

 clusions, and most gloriously ridiculous ones they are, I 

 sometimes fancy. . . . Can you throw any light into my 

 mind by telling me what relation cleavage and planes of 

 deposition bear to each other ? 



And now for my second section, Zoology. I have chiefly 

 been employed in preparing myself for the South Sea by 

 examining the polypi of the smaller Corallines in these lati- 

 tudes. Many in themselves are very curious, and I think are 

 quite undescribed ; there was one appalling one, allied to a 

 Flustra, which I dare say I mentioned having found to the 

 northward, where the cells have a movable organ (like a 

 vulture's head, with a dilatable beak), fixed on the edge. But 

 what is of more general interest is the unquestionable (as it 

 appears to me) existence of another species of ostrich, besides 

 the Struthio rhea. All the Gauchos and Indians state it is 

 the case, and I place the greatest faith in their observations. 

 I have the head, neck, piece of skin, feathers, and legs of one. 

 The differences are chiefly in the colour of the feathers and 

 scales on legs, being feathered below the knees, nidification, 

 and geographical distribution. So much for what I have 



