400 DROMACIII.E. 



lands of our public parks and gardens. Probably, too, more has been written about it than any 

 other of our birds. Is it not Australia's very own, typical of the Commonwealth, appearing 

 both in our coat of arms and coinage? Open plains and forest lands are its favourite haunts, 

 wide expanses which attord it an opportunity of exhibiting its great running and staying powers. 

 Often between the Namoi and Gwydir Rivers, and between Gilgandra and Coonamble, have I 

 watched from a railway carriage window a flock of these birds stretching out in single file, run 

 with apparent ease alongside the railway fence or beaten track about twenty yards from the 

 railway line, when the latter is unfenced. With out-stretched neck's and tremendous stride they 

 seemingly amble slowly along, generally twenty or thirty yards in front and on either side of the 

 engine. On these, in parts, dead level plains one expects every minute to pass the flocks of 

 running birds, but after some minutes (iiul that the train neither decreases tlie lead nor does it 

 get left behind. They seem like a man, with his race well in hand, simply playing with his 

 competitors. INIile post after mile post Hashes past, and still the birds keep up their swift and 

 unchanging and unswer\ing L;ait, it may be five or eight, when thesmall wayside station appears 

 in view, .'\lthough usually blundering and exceedingly stupid, instinctively the birds seem to 

 have an intuition that it is a place to be avoided, when they suddenly swer\e off and scamper 

 at right angles over the plains. One does not usually associate damp and humid flats and 

 mountain ranges, covered with a dense and luxuriant vegetation, as the place one would expect 

 to meet an limu, although he would a Cassowary, if they were within its geographical distribution. 

 When the Gippsland railway line, in Victoria, was being formed it passed from Warragal east- 

 wards through a dense and luxuriant vegetation of ferns, blanket-weed, sassafras, nativemusk and 

 LJlackbutt, and Mr. D. Fenton, of South Melbourne, who was engaged on the railways, informed 

 me that on two occasions he was on an engine without train, and after an exciting and long 

 chase of many miles, succeeded in running down each time an Emu. Subsequently I visited 

 that part of the State, and kept a bright look out for these birds, chiefly in the neighbourhood 

 of McDonald and track following the course of tlie summit of the Strzeleclci flange. Although 

 unsuccessful in meeting with this species during my many visits to that part of South Gippsland, 

 I nevertheless saw the huge recent foot-prints, particularly of the toes and claws, of a full grown 

 Emu in the soft muddy banks of a mountain creek. 



The food consists chiefly of wild fruits and berries, and a great quantity of grass. In 

 Northern and North-western New South Wales, the fruit of the Ouandong (Fusnuus acumiimtus) 

 and the Sour Plum, limu Apple or " Colani " (Owtiiia acidiila) and the fruit of the Prickly Pear 

 form a large portion. Anything and every hard substance is pick"ed up to assist in digestion, 

 such as stones, pebbles and pieces of metal. 



The deep drunnning or booming note of this species, especially of the male at night, is well 

 known, both to the inhabitants of the plain or the dweller in a large city, when anywhere within 

 the neighbourhood of a Zoological Garden. 



The flesh of this bird, although coarse, is eaten by the Aborigines in all parts of .-\ustralia, 

 in fact nearly the entire bird is used by them in one way or another. Its tendons are utilized 

 for binding parts together, or as twine in sewing its skin as mats and rugs. Its feathers are 

 used in many ways, chiefly by way of ornament to head dresses; they are also utilized by 

 Central Australian natives in making the famous Kudaitcha shoes, or "shoes of silence." In 

 the Northern Territory "chignons " of Emu feathers are worn by the men : they are also used 

 as a sheath for their stone knives or surgical instruments. I"or this reason I have included some 

 descriptions by various writers on Aboriginal modes of killing and capturing the Emu. 



E>r. Walter E. Roth, late Northern Protector of Aboriginals, Queensland, wrote as follows:— 

 " The following method of hunting emus, by driving them into nets, is practised throughout 

 North- Western and Central Queensland : — Emus generally make for the water-hole, day by day, 

 along the same track, coming either at early morn or midday. The hunters, having noted this 



