110 



BAHIA BLANCA. 



Aug. 1833. 



bigny, when at tlie Rio Negro, made great exertions to pro- 

 cure this bird^ but never had the good fortune to succeed. 

 He mentions it in his Travels^* and proposes (in case, 

 I presume, of a specimen being obtained) to call it llhea 

 pennata : a fuller notice was given long before in Dobriz- 

 hoffer's Account of the Abiponesf (a.d. 1749). He says, 

 ^'^You must know, moreover, that Emus differ in size 

 and habits in different tracts of land ; for those that inhabit 

 the plains of Buenos Ayres and Tucuman are larger, and 

 have black, white, and gray feathers ; those near to the 

 Strait of Magellan are smaller and more beautiful, for their 

 white feathers are tipped with black at the extremity, and 

 their black ones in like manner terminate in white.'^ 



A very singular little bird, lately described by St. Hilaire 

 and Lesson under the name of Tinochorns Eschscholtzii, is 

 here common. In its habits, general appearance, and struc- 

 ture, it nearly equally partakes of the character of a 

 quail and a snipe. Yet these two birds are widely con- 

 trasted in the form of their beaks, wings, and legs. The 

 Tinochorus is found in the whole of southern South 

 America, wherever there are sterile plains, or open dry 

 pasture-land. We saw it as far south as the inland 

 plains of Patagonia at Santa Cruz, in lat. 50°. On the 

 western side of the Cordillera near Concepcion, where the 

 forest land changes into an open country, this bird is found : 

 from that point throughout Chile, as far as Copiapo, it 

 frequents the most desolate places, where scarcely another 

 living creature can exist. They are found either in pairs 

 or small flocks of five or six ; but near the Sierra Ventana I 

 saw as many as thirty or forty together. Upon being 



* Vol. ii., p. 76. — When at the Rio Negro, we heard much of the inde- 

 fatigable labours of this naturalist. M. D'Alcide D'Orbigny, during the 

 years 1826 to 1833, traversed several large portions of South America, 

 and has made a collection, and is now publishing the results on a scale of 

 magnificence, which at once places him in the list of American travellers 

 second only to Humboldt. 



f Vol. i. (English translation), p. 314. 



