106 



BAHIA BLANCA. 



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 beheve the cock^ emits a singular deep-toned, hiss- 

 ing note. When first I heard it, standing in the midst of 

 some sand-hillocks, 1 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 

 either lie scattered single, in w^hich 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 BurchelFs travels in South Africa, 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 w^s a most beautiful bird. 



