94 BAHIA BLANCA chap. 



American ostrich. The ordinary habits of the ostrich are 

 familiar to every one. They live on vegetable matter, such as 

 roots and grass ; but at Bahia Blanca I have repeatedly seen 

 three or four come down at low water to the extensive mud- 

 banks which are then dry, for the sake, as the Gauchos say, of 

 feeding on small fish. Although the ostrich in its habits is so 

 shy, wary, and solitary, and although so fleet in its pace, it is 

 caught without much difficulty by the Indian or Gaucho armed 

 with the bolas. When several horsemen appear in a semicircle, 

 it becomes confounded, 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 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 

 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 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,-^ 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, 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 found all 



^ Start's Travels, vol. ii. p. 74. 



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

 and that it was a most beautiful bird. 



