DROMyRUS. 



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track, will wait in ambush and allow the bird to pass down on its way to water, but, while 

 drinking,' there, will sneak round, and silently as well as expeditiously rif,' up the emu-net 

 some thirty or forty yards behind the creature and right across its path. Since the emu usually 

 spends some time at the water-hole, the fixinf,' up of the net is not necessarily quite so hurried 

 a performance as might have been expected, though it can be placed in position within a very 

 few minutes. All being ready, the hunters will suddenly emerge from their hiding-places when 

 the bird returns, and as it rushes headlong (any diversion from the path being prevented by 

 the men stationed in suitable positions) will drive it into the net, where it becomes entangled, 

 and with boomerangs and nulla-nullas soon despatch them. . . . Sometimes a long alley-way 

 (. . . .), nuich wider at one extremity than at the other, is built up in a convenient situation with 

 bushes, boughs, and saplings intertwined, the narrower end is blocked with an emu-net, while the 

 wider is left open. Close to the opening, and about midway between the two sides, are the 

 hunters, who, concealed under cover of some branches, etc., start imitating the emu's ' call.' 

 The bird, coming up in answer to the sound, struts along either side of where the men are in 

 ambush ; the latter, on rushing out, make a sort of wheeling movement, and once getting behind 

 the creature, have no difficulty in driving it before them along the alley into the net, were it 

 becomes entrapped. The 'call,' a sort of 'drumming' sound, is imitated by blowing intoa hollow 

 log some 2A to 3 feet long, from which the inside core has been burnt so as to form an aperture 

 about 3 inches in diameter; when in use, the tube is held close to the ground on which a slight 

 excavation has been made. These 'call-tubes' are met with throughout North-West Central 

 Queensland ; the alley-ways I only know of being employed in the Boulia District." Dr. Roth 

 also describes in detail the capture of Emus by means of pits, dug in close proximity to some 

 wild vine, bush, or Imiiu Apple-tree, and carefully covered with light boughs and saplings; also 

 by means of spearing. 



In the narrative of the " Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia," Professor \V. 

 Baldwin Spencer, of the University of Melbourne, wrote :— " Whilst at Reedy Creek I had a 

 good opportunity of witnessing the tracking powers of the blacks. I was out in the scrub with 

 three of them when suddenly they came to a standstill and after carefully examining the hard 

 ground they became very excited. On asking what was the matter they told me that there was an 

 emu about with six young ones. The three then separated and commenced to track it up. 

 They went on a trot the whole time ; not a word was spoken but where tlie scrub was thin they 

 communicated with each other by signs. .After two miles' run, during which it was iiuite 

 enough for me to do to keep up with them and to look after my collecting material, without 

 troubling to look after tracks which I could not detect, they came to a sudden halt, and there in 

 an open patch in front of us was the mother emu with its six young ones. The mother at once 

 made off, but, shouting and laughing, the blacks soon caught the young ones and we brought 

 them back to camp and carried them alive for some hundreds of miles on camel back. The 

 ground was so hard that only an experienced white man would have detected the tracks of the 

 old bird, but it did not take the blacks more than a minute's careful examination of the very 

 faint tracks to come to the conclusion as to the coriect number of young ones. If they had had 

 their spears with them the old bird would certainly have been captured. Their keeness and 

 suppressed excitement when on the track were worth seeing, as well as their childish glee when 

 they were successful." 



In the " Anthropology " of the same expedition Dr. E. C. Stirling, of the University of 

 Adelaide, wrote :— " Many, if not all kinds of birds are also eaten, and of these the emu, from its 

 size, may be reckoned the most important in this respect. It, like the kangaroo, is also often 

 captured by spearing at the soakages or waterholes. At the Tarn of Auber, Glen Edith, we saw 

 a pile of stones that had been erected to serve as an ambush for this purpose. In certain parts 

 they are, however, not unfrequently caught by poisoning with Pitchuri ( Diiboisia hop?.vodit). A 

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