IIADITS OF THE OSTIUCM. 115 



horsemen appear in a semicircle, it becomes con- 

 founded, and does not know which way to escape. 

 They generally prefer running against the wind ; 

 yet at the first start they expand their wings, and, 

 like a vessel, make all sail. On one fine hot day I 

 saw several ostriches enter a bed of tall rushes, 

 where they squatted concealed till quite closely 

 approached. It is not generally known that os- 

 triches readily take to the water. Mr. King in- 

 forms me that at the Bay of San Bias, and at Port 

 Valdes in Patagonia, he saw these birds swimming 

 several times from island to island. They ran into 

 the water both when driven down to a point, and 

 likewise of their own accord when not fiightened : 

 the distance crossed was about two hundred yards. 

 When swimming, very little of their bodies appear 

 above water ; their necks are extended a little for- 

 ward, and then- progi-ess is slow. On two occa- 

 sions I saw some ostriches swimming across the 

 Santa Cruz river, where its course was about four 

 hundred yards wide, and the stream rapid. Cap- 

 tain Sturt,* when descending the Murrumbidgee, 

 in Australia, saw two emus in the act of swimming. 

 The inhabitants of the country readily distin- 

 guish, even at a distance, the cock bird from the 

 hen. The former is larger and darker-coloured,t 

 and has a bigger head. The ostrich, I believe the 

 cock, emits a singular, deep-toned, hissing note : 

 when first I heard it, standing in the midst of some 

 sand-hillocks, I thought it was made by some wild 

 beast, for it is a sound that one cannot tell whence 

 it comes, or from how far distant. When we were 

 at Bahia Blanca in the months of September and 

 October, the eggs, in extraordinary numbers, were 



* Sturt's Travels, vol. ii., p. 74. 



t A Gaucho assured me that he had once seen a snow-white or 

 Albino variety, and that it was a most beautiful bird. 



