OCR Text |
Show 106 BAHIA BLANCA. Aug. 1833. . about four hundred yards Cruz river, where Its co.urse ~:stain Sturt, when descending wide, and the strea~ rapid. li p saw two emus in the act of the Murrumbidgee, m Austra a, -swimming. li . the country readily distinguish, The inhabitants who ve m . d f the hen. The former . the cock bu rom even at a distance, red* and has a bigger head. ~he is larger and darker-colou ' 't singular deep-toned, hissostrich, I believe the cock, emdis.ta tanding in the midst of Wh first I hear I ' s 'ld ing note. . en I thouO'ht it was made by some WI some sand.- h.i llocks, d that oo ne canno t tell whence it comes, beast, for It IS a so~n Wh we were at Bahia Blanca h f r distant. en · o. r from otwh af Septemb er an d October' the eggs, m ex, tra-m t.h e mon sbo rs were £o un d al l over the country. 1hey ordmary. num tet ' d sm. gle m. w h'Ic h case they are never either lie sea ere ' S · d huachos · or they d d are called by the pamar s, .' hatche , an . 1 all excavation whiCh forms are collecte d toge the r In to a s 1 t ow l·' ch I saw' three con- 0 t f the four nes s w u ' the , nest. u 0 h d the fourth twenty-seven. tained twenty-two ~ggs each' anback sixty-four eggs were In one day's huntmg on orse 'n two nests, and the f t f of these were 1 . found ; or y- our h h The Gauchos unam-remaining twenty scattere.d uac os. to doubt their state-ffi. and there IS no reason mously ha t r::e male bird alone hatches the eggs, and for ment, t a . h ung The cock some time afterw~rds accolmp~n~e~a~eemyy~elf ~lmost ridden h on the nest hes very c ose ' w en It is asserted that at such times they are occa-o. v er one. d that they have been 11 fi d even dangerous, an swna y erce, an h b k trving to kick and leap known to attack a man on orse ac ' . J. h h. My informer pointed out to me an old man, w om on 1m. · h' I observe he had seen much terrified by one chasmg lm. " . . B rchell's travels in SouthAfrica, that he remark~, haVI~gd mki ll ud a· male ostrich, and the feathers b e·m g dirty , It was sahl by :he Hottentots to be a nest bird." I understand that t e • A Gaucho assured me, that he l~ad o~ce seen a snow-w l1'1t e' or Albino van.e t y,'a nd that it was a most beautiful bud. Aug. 1833. HABITS OF OSTRICH. 107 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 Mrica, that two females lay in one nest.* Although this habit at first appears very strange, I think the cause may be 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 probable, 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, t 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 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 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 • Burchell's Travels, vol. i., p. 280 . t Azara, vol. iv., p. 173. |