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, 1 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, 2 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 
1 Sturt’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 74. 
2 A Gaucho assured me that he had once seen a snow-white or Albino variety, 
and that it was a most beautiful bird. 
