N£STS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



1061 



With regard to tlio maxiimim number of eggs laid by Emus, I cite 

 the following Rivcrina data: — Mr. George Warner saw a clutch con- 

 taining sixteen eggs on the TuUa run; Mr. 1). Parker, a hunter, took 

 on the 261 ii May, 1895, on Nyang, .seventeen eggs from one nest, and, 

 remarkable to sUite, the eggs were in two tiers, twelve in the bottom 

 and live above; but 1 think Mr. Neil Macaulay takes the record with 

 eighteen, which he counted in a nest at Dunvegan. I have no records 

 of fifteen eggs, but know of several instances of fourteen. 



As a test for the general average number of eggs laid by the Emu, 

 the following statement sliows a number of nests containing seven eggs 

 and over, foimd during two successive seasons in Riverina. 



Nests. 

 21 

 23 



Eggs. 

 184 

 221 



44 

 Combined average 



405 



i = 9j<^, or9 2. 



The incubation of Emu eggs takes about eight weeks. A reference 

 to a record kept at tlie Zoological Gardens, Melbourne, shows that in 

 1892 young were noticed there on the 57th day after the male bird 

 commenced to sit. At the September (1889) meeting of the Linnean 

 Society of New South Wales, Mr. A. J. North read a " Note on the 



