NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 1063 



the nest during the daytime, and if he fed at all it must have been 

 at night." 



Mr. Dudley Le Souef, the Assistant^Director of the Zoological 

 Gardens, Melbourne, has obligingly favoured me with the following 

 significant note : " Female (Emu) killed accidentally just when finished 

 laying. Male bird hatched and reai-cd five young liiniself." 



Why do Emus lay during winter, when the groat majority of birds 

 breetl cku'ing spring and siuiimcrl — an interesting question. We arc 

 aware that such birds as Finches and Parrots usually lay towards the 

 end of spring or in summer, when the gi-ass-seeds, &c., are ripe enough 

 for their young. So I suspect the Emu lays duiing the winter because 

 the eggs, taking a long tenn of incubation, ai-e hatched just as the 

 tender blades 01 gi-ass and herbage, upon which the yoiuig Emus feed, 

 sprout on the first approach of spiing. 



I may now venture to give my Emu-nesting experiences in com- 

 pany with the himtei-s previously referred to. The locality is near the 

 Neimm', a billabong (or ana-branch) of the Edwards Rivei-, and may be 

 characterised as flat, open, foi'est country, where red-gum (Eucalyptus 

 rostiata) fringes the course of the streams, now mostly waterless. Back 

 from and between the water-coirrses are short box-tree (another species 

 of Eucalyptus) flats. In paddocks where the trees are " i-ung " for 

 pastoral purposes, they appear dull and dead, reUeved only by the green 

 suckers springing from their base, and in keeping with the ground, 

 which is clotlied with the dead herbage of last season's growth. An 

 occasional dry bed of a polygonum swamp adds to tlie monotony of 

 these bo.K-flats, wliile " a rise " of graceful pines (Gallitris) is a cheer- 

 ful contrast to the sight. 



Being winter, the days are calm and cloudless as a iiUe, with much 

 wannth in the sunshine, while the nights are cold, clear, and frosty. 



We perambulate the country on foot, or sometimes take horseback, 

 spreading out and proceeding in line. Tlie nest is nearly always 

 discovered by the Emus starting up and running dii-ectly away swiftly 

 thi-ough the bush. Not much time is lost in finding her, or rather his, 

 starting-point, and there is revealed a solid oval of large and beautiful 

 dark-green eggs, side by side, touching or nearly so, with all their long 

 diameters limning in the one direction, or with the long way of the 

 oval. If the eggs be warm, either one or other of theii- ends feels cold 

 to the touch. I suppose embryologists could assign a reason for this. 



The hunters tell me that occasionally, on going through coimtry 

 quietly and coming suddenly upon a sitting bird, he will extend his 

 neck out upon the groimd as if to escape observation before being forced 

 to 11m. In one particular instance an old bird sat so closely to his 

 cliarge that he had to be removed with the aid of a stick. The clutch 

 (fourteen eggs) was nearly hatched, which accounted, no doubt, for the 

 poor bird's unwillingness to quit. 



The eggs gathered are placed down the legs of old pants, in anus of 

 singlets, or rolled in cravats, the division between each egg being tied 

 tightly wth string, the gannents when charged resembling so many 

 strings of gi-eat squat>shaped sausages. These rings of eggs are now 

 carried round the hunter, over his shoulder and under the opposite 



