THE OSTRICH. 73 



ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



The inhabitants of the country can readily tell, even at 

 a distance, the cock bird from the hen. The former is larger, 

 and darker colored, and has a bigger head. The ostrich (I 

 believe, the cock) utters a singular deep-toned, hissing note ; 

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

 locks, 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 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 to- 

 gether into a shallow excavation, which forms the nest. Out 

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

 eggs sach, and the fourth twenty- seven. Each of these is 

 said to equal in weight eleven hen eggs; so that we ob- 

 tained from this last nest as much food as two hundred 

 and ninety-seven hen eggs would have given. The Gauchos 

 all agree in saying that there is no reason to doubt that 

 the male bird alone hatches the eggs, and for some time 

 afterward accompanies the young. The cock, when on the 

 nest, lies very close; I have myself almost ridden over one. 

 At such times they are said to be occasionally fierce and 

 even dangerous, and to 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 trav- 

 els in South Africa, that he remarks, " Having killed a male 

 ostrich, and the feathers being dirty, it was said by the Hot- 



