402 DUOM/EID.-E. 



bunch of the leaves and twigs of this plant is placed in a small waterhole, or, if it be a lari:;e one, 

 into a limited portion of it, which is dammed off from the remainder, access to the main body of 

 water beinj; in such a case prevented by a brush fence. On drinking the water thus poisoned 

 the birds become stupid and dizzy — ' all same drunk' as the blacks put it — when they are easily 

 killed." 



i\Ir. George Savidge wrote from Copmanhurst, Ipper Clarence Ri\er, New South Wales, 

 in iMarch, igii: — "There area iew Diviiiirus novLC-hoUamUit at the head of Chapman's Gully, 

 but are seldom .seen. I have also observed old birds on the coast at Corindi, but they are also 

 very rare there." 



The late Mr. K. H. Ijennett, writing in 1886 from Mossgiel, in the south-eastern portion of 

 the Western Division of New South \\'ales, remarks : — " Some few years ago Dronueiis lurvic- 

 holhiudice was e.xtremely numerous on these extensive plains, although it is not to be met with in 

 the same numbers it formerly was. This is due chiefly to the fact that large numbers have 

 perished during the last four or five years from drought. To the pastoralist they are an object 

 of destruction, from the quantity of succulent herbage and water they consume. They also do 

 immense daiuage by their reckless blundering manner of going through or over wire fences, and 

 by the scattering of ewes and lambs at breeding time, in play, by rushing through the flocks, 

 causing the death of many young lambs. These birds are, however, hunted down with kangaroo 

 dogs, shot down with a rille or fowling piece, and their eggs ruthlessly destroyed. During the 

 period of incubation the males are exceedingly pugnacious, and furious battles ensue when two 

 meet. In the cold frosty winter nights the male wanders for a long distance from the nest, 

 uttering his rich booming note of deliance. If this is heard by another male the challenge is 

 accepted, and guided by each others notes they at length meet, and a conllict takes place, often 

 resulting in the death of one or other of the combatants. This habit is also fatal to the Emu in 

 another way, for the natives imitate its note on an instrument made for the purpose, and lure 

 it to its destruction. I was on one occasion present at one of these decoys, which resulted in the 

 death of two fine male birds, but as the business included sitting motionless and silent all hours 

 on a bitterly cold frosty night, I have no wish to be piesent again. 



" The breeding season commences in May or June, frequently lasting up to September, 

 and the nesls vary in different situations; when on the plains the eggs are deposited on the bare 

 ground, and if amongst the low Polygonum bushes, so common on large areas, the eggs are 

 surrounded by a ring of short broken pieces of the stems of the plant, apparently for the purpose 

 of keeping them in position and preventing them from rolling away. At other times they are 

 placed on a thin layer of grass, whilst in the brushwood country, and particularly where the 

 Leopard-tree (Flmdci'sia maculosa) abounds, a low flat mound some three inches high is formed 

 by scraping together the scales of bark, thrown off by the above-mentioned tree, in which the 

 eggs are placed. The eggs usually vary from seven to ten in number for a sitting." 



Mr. S. Robinson wrote me on the 3rd June, 1S95, from IJuckiinguy Station, on Crooked 

 Creek, a tributary of the Harwon River, in the north-western portion of the Central District of 

 New South Wales, as follows : — " I found two Emu nests to-day, one with six the other with 

 ten eggs; now that they are laying you generally meet with them singly, not in pairs. I have 

 a full set for you; when I first found it there were only four eggs, so I left it for fifteen days, 

 when I returned and found thirteen eggs in the nest. They vary in number from nine to sixteen, 

 and 1 have found a nest with twenty-six eggs, but it was a case undoubtedly of two females laying 

 in the same nest." Writing on the 17th August following he remarks: — "To-day I was searching 

 in the reed-beds for nests, and came to a small island about two and a half acres in extent, 

 covered with rushes about eighteen inches high, and about three quarters of a mile from the 

 shore. There being a dead tree about the centre of the island, I climbed it to see if there was 

 anything about, and on looking down saw an Emu sitting on her nest. Descending the tree. 



