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Show 108 BAHIA BLANCA. Aug. 1833. of incubation ? It is evident that there must at first be some de!!Tee of association between at least two females ; otherwi: e the egO's would ;emain scattered over the wide plains, at distances fa~ too great to allow of the male collecting them into one nest. Some have believed that the scattered eggs were deposited for the young birds to feed on. 1,his can hardly be the case in America, because the huachos, although oftentimes found addled and putrid, are generally whole. When at the Rio Negro, in Northern Patago~ia, I ~epeatedly heard the Gauchos talking of a ~ery ~are brr~ whiCh they called Avestruz Petise. They descnbed 1t as bemg 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 shor~er, and feathered lower down than those of the common ostnch. 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 surprise, that they were very little less than those of the Rhea, but of a slightly different form, and with a tinge of pale blue. Some eg?s, picked up on the plains of Patagonia, agree pretty well ":1th this description, and I do not doubt are those of the Petlse. This species occurs most rarely on the plains bordering the Rio Negro ; but about a degree and a half further south they are tolerably abundant. One Gaucho, however, said he distinctly recollected having seen one, many years before, near the mouth of the .Rio Colorado, which is to the north of the Rio Negro. They are said to prefer the plains near the sea. When at Port Desire, in Patagonia (lat. 48°), Mr. Martens shot an ostrich; and I looked at it, forgetting at the moment, in the most unaccountable manner, the whole subject of the Petises, and thought it was a two-third grown one of the common sort. The bird was cooked and eaten before my memory returned. Fortunately the head, neck, legs, wings, many of the larger feathers, and a large part of the skin, had Aug. 1833. TWO KINDS OF OSTRICH. 109 been preserved. From these a very nearly perf t · h b . ec specimen as een put together, and IS now exhibited 1• th f . . n e museum o the Zoological Society. Mr Gould wh . d .b. th. . . · , o m escn mg Is new species did me the honour of calling it after my name, states, that besides the smaller size and different colour of the plumage the beak is of co 'd bl 1 · 1 d' . ' nsi era y ess pro-por~ wna Imenswns than in the common Rhea ; that the tarsi are covered with differently-shaped scales and that th are feathered six inches beneath the knee 'I th' 1 ey . · n Is atter respect, and m the broader feathers of the wing, this bird perhaps shows more affinity to the gallinaceous family than any other of the Struthionidre. . Among the Patago~ian Indians in the Strait of Ma ellan w~ found a half Indian, who had lived some years w~h th~ t~Ibe,. but had been born in the northern provinces. I asked him lf he had ever heard of the Avestruz Petise ~ H answered by saying, " Why there are none others i~ thes: sout~ern countries." He informed me that the number of eggs m the. nest of the petise is considerably less than with the other kind, namely, not more than fifteen on an average . but he asserted that more than one female deposited them' At Sa~ta Cruz we saw several of these birds. They wer~ ~xcessively wary : I think they could see a person approachmg when he was so far off as not to · distinguish the ostrich In ~scending the river few were seen ; but in our quiet and rapid descent, many, in pairs and by fours or fives, were obs~ rved.. It was remarked, and I think with truth, that this bird did not expand its wings, when first starting at full speed, aft~r the m~nner of the northern kind. The fact of t~ese ostnches swimming across the river has been men~ IOne~. In conclusion, I may repeat that the Struthio Rhea m.habits the country of La Plata as far as a little south of the Rw Negro, in lat. 41°, and that the petise takes its place in Southern P~tagonia; the part about the Rio Negro being neutral territory. Wallis saw ostriches at Batchelor' · (l t 53o ') • s river a · 54 , m the Strait of Magellan, which must be the extreme southern possible range of the petise. M. D'Or- |