90 BAHIA BLANCA. (cHaP. Vv. 
Tunning 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 gene- 
rally known that ostriches readily take to the water. Mr. King 
informs me that at the Bay of San Blas, 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 de- 
scending 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,t+ and has a bigger head. The ostrich, I believe 
the cock, emits a singular, deep-toned, hissing note: when first 
LT 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 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 afterwards accompanies the young. 
* Sturt’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, 
