(;r"-
106 Aug. 1833.
Cruz river, where its course was about four hundred yards
wide, and the stream rapid. Captain Sturt, when descending
the Murrumbidgee, in Australia, saw two emus in the act of
swimming.
The inhabitants who live in the country readily distinguish,
even at a distance, the cook bird from the hen. The former
is larger and darker-coloured,* 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 over the country. They
either lie scattered 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 unani-
'mously 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. The cock
when on the nest lies very c lose; I have myself almost ridden
over one. It is asserted that at such times they are occasionally
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 Burchell’s travels in SouthAfrica, 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 G a u c h o a s su re d m e, th a t h e h a d o n c e se en a sn ow -w h ite , o r A lb in o
v a rie ty , a n d th a t i t was a m o s t b e a u tifu l b ird .
male emu, in the Zoological Garden, takes charge of the
nest : this habit, therefore, is common to the family.
The Gauchos unanimously affirm that several females lay
in one nest. I have been positively told, that four or five
hen birds have been seen to go, in the middle of the day, one
after the other, to the same nest. I may add, also, that it is
believed in Africa, that two females lay in one nest.* Although
this habit at first appears very strange, I think the
cause may he explained in a simple manner. The number
of eggs in the nest varies from twenty to forty, and even to
fifty; and according to Azara to seventy or eighty. Now
although it is most jirobable, from the number of eggs found
in one district being so extraordinarily great, in proportion to
that of the parent birds, and likewise from the state of the
ovarium of the hen, that she may in the course of the season
lay a large number, yet the time required must be very long.
Azara states,! that a female in a state of domestication laid
seventeen eggs, each at the interval of three days one from
another. If the hen were obliged to hatch her own eggs,
before the last was laid the first probably would he
addled; but if each laid a few eggs at successive periods,
in different nests, and several hens, as is stated... to bp
the case, combined together, then the eggs in one colléfcrion'
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 could not
sit, on account of not having finished laying. I have before
mentioned the great numbers of huachos, or scattered eggs ;
so that in one day’s hunting the third part 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 persuading an old cock to undertake the office
B iirc h e ll’s T ra v e ls , vo l. i., p . 2 8 0 , t A z a ra , v o l. iv ., p . 173.
INI