102 CHARLES DARWIN 



men appear in a semicircle, it becomes confounded, and does 

 not know which way to escape. They generally prefer run- 

 ning 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 ostriches readily take to the 

 water. Mr. King informs me that at the Bay of San Bias, 

 and at Port Valdes in Patagonia, he saw these birds swim- 

 ming 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 frightened: the distance 

 crossed was about two hundred yards. When swimming, 

 very little of their bodies appear above water; their necks 

 are extended a little forward, and their progress is slow. 

 On two occasions I saw some ostriches swimming across the 

 Santa Cruz river, where its course was about four hundred 

 yards wide, and the stream rapid. Captain Sturt, u when 

 descending the Murrumbidgee, in Australia, saw two emus 

 in the act of swimming. 



The inhabitants of the country readily distinguish, even 

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

 larger and darker-coloured," and has a bigger head. The 

 ostrich, I believe the cock, emits a singular, deep-toned, hiss- 

 ing 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 extra- 

 ordinary 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 con- 

 tained 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 re- 

 maining twenty, scattered huachos. The Gauchos unani- 



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



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

 variety, and that it was a most beautiful bird. 



