96 
BAHIA BLANCA 
CHAP. 
eggs, each at the interval of three days one from another. If the 
hen was obliged to hatch her own eggs, before the last was laid 
the first probably would be addled ; but if each laid a few eggs 
at successive periods, in different nests, and several hens, as is 
stated to be the case, combined together, then the eggs in one 
collection would be nearly of the same age. If the number 
of eggs in one of these nests is, as I believe, not greater on an 
average than the number laid by one female in the season, then 
there must be as many nests as females, and each cock bird 
will have its fair share of the labour of incubation ; and that 
during a period when the females probably could not sit, from 
not having finished laying. 1 I have before mentioned the great 
numbers of huachos, or deserted eggs ; so that in one 
day’s hunting twenty were found in this state. It appears odd 
that so many should be wasted. Does it not arise from the 
difficulty of several females associating together, and finding a 
male ready to undertake the office of incubation ? It is evident 
that there must at first be some degree of association 
between at least two females ; otherwise the eggs would remain 
scattered over the wide plains, at distances far too great to 
allow of the male collecting them into one nest : some authors 
have believed that the scattered eggs were deposited for the 
young birds to feed on. This can hardly be the case in 
America, because the huachos, although often found addled and 
putrid, are generally whole. 
When at the Rio Negro in Northern Patagonia, I repeatedly 
heard the Gauchos talking of a very rare bird which they called 
Avestruz Petise. They described it as being less than the common 
ostrich (which is there abundant), but with a very close general 
resemblance. They said its colour was dark and mottled, and 
that its legs were shorter, and feathered lower down than those 
of the common ostrich. It is more easily caught by the 
bolas than the other species. The few inhabitants who had 
seen both kinds, affirmed they could distinguish them apart 
from a long distance. The eggs of the small species appeared, 
however, more generally known ; and it was remarked, with 
1 Lichtenstein, however, asserts {Havels, vol. ii. p. 25) that the hens begin 
sitting when they have laid ten or twelve eggs ; and that they continue laying, I 
presume, in another nest. This appears to me very improbable. He asserts that 
four or five hens associate for incubation with one cock, who sits only at night. 
