1833.] SOUTH AMERICAN OSTRICH. 85 



darker-coloured,* 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 conies, or from how far distant. When we were at 

 Bahia Blanca in the months of September and October, the eggs, 

 in extraordinary numbers, were found all over the country. They 

 lie either scattered and single, in which case they are never hatched, 

 and are called by the Spaniards huachos ; or they are collected 

 together into a shallow excavation, which forms the nest. Out of 

 the four nests which I saw, three contained twenty-two eggs each, 

 and the fourth twenty-seven. In one day's hunting on horseback 

 sixty-four eggs were found ; forty-four of these were in two nests, 

 and the remaining twenty, scattered huachos. The Gauchos 

 unanimously affirm, and there is no reason to doubt their statement, 

 that the male bird alone hatches the eggs, and for some time after- 

 wards accompanies the young. The cock when on the nest lies 

 very close; I have myself almost ridden over one. It is asserted 

 that at such times they are occasionally fierce, and even dangerous, 

 and that they have been known to attack a man on horseback, trying 

 to kick and leap on him. My informer pointed out to me an old 

 man, whom he had seen much terrified by one chasing him. I 

 observe in Burchell's travels in South Africa, that he remarks, 

 " Having killed a male ostrich, and the feathers being dirty, it was 

 said by the Hottentots to be a nest bird." I understand that the 

 male emu in the Zoological Gardens takes charge of the nest : this 

 habit, therefore, is common to the family. 



The Gauchos unanimously affirm that several females lay in one 

 nest. I have been positively told that four or five hen birds have 

 been watched to go in the middle of the day, one after the other, to 

 the same nest. I may add, also, that it is believed in Africa, that 

 two or more females lay in one nest.f Although this habit at 

 first appears very strange, I think the cause may be explained in 

 a simple manner. The number of eggs in the nest varies from 

 twenty to forty, and even to fifty ; and according to Azara, some- 

 times to seventy or eighty. Now, although it is most probable, 

 from the number of eggs found in one district being so extra- 



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

 variety, and that it was a most beautiful bird. 

 , f Burchell's Travels, vol. i. p. 280. 



