106 BAHIA BLANC A. Aug. 1833. 



Cruz river, where its course was about four hundred yards 

 wide, and the stream rapid. Captain Sturt, when descending 

 the Murrumbidgee, in AustraUa, saw two emus in the act of 

 swimming. 



The inhabitants who hve in 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, T 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 aU over the country. They 

 either lie scattered 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 

 remaining twenty scattered huachos. The Gauchos unani- 

 mously affirm, and there is no reason to doubt their state- 

 ment, that the male bird alone hatches the eggs, and for 

 some time afterwards 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 occa- 

 sionally 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 BurcheU's travels in SouthAfrica, 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 



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

 variety, and that it was a most beautiful bird. 



