ented to
account for their entombment. I am far from supposing that the
climate has not changed since the period when those animals lived,
which now lie buried in the ice. At present I only wish to show,
that as far as QUANTITY of food ALONE is concerned, the ancient
rhinoceroses might have roamed over the STEPPES of central Siberia
(the northern parts probably being under water) even in their
present condition, as well as the living rhinoceroses and elephants
over the KARROS of Southern Africa.

I will now give an account of the habits of some of the more
interesting birds which are common on the wild plains of Northern
Patagonia: and first for the largest, or South 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 mudbanks 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 Blas, 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, when descending the Murrumbidgee, in Australia, saw two emus
in the act of swimming. (5/11. Sturt's Travels, volume 2 page 74.)

The inhabitants of the country readily distinguish, even at a
distance, the cock bird from the hen. Th