408 DROM.EII)^.. 



alarmed and runs off, but frequently it is arrested by the blackfellow iuiitatin^' the whistliim of 

 the yount,' limus, and conies f^apinj,' up closer and closer till the blackfellow either throws a 

 spear at it, or perhaps breaks its le^; with a boonieranj,'. Another way is to scratch a hole in 

 the sand of a watercourse, behind which the blackfellow throws up a break or a blind of bushes, 

 etc., and conceals himself. As the water in the soakage scratched out is, perhaps, a foot or 

 more from the surface, and the diameter of the hole only a few inches, when the limu puts his 

 head down to drink he becomes an easy prey. If the water is on the surface, as it frequently 

 may be in these gorges, at the root of a tree, the Aboriginal may conceal himself in the fork or 

 bushes above, and spear the Emu. Frequently they came to these places at night, and I should 

 say Emus travelled a long distance for water in that country. The water in a great portion of 

 Central Australia, in a dry or ordinary season, is in rock-holes up long narrow gorges running 

 out from the ranges, or in soakages scratched by Emus, dogs, etc., in the creeks running out 

 from the gorges, so that they often find themselves in a cul-de-sac. The I'ituri { iJnhoisia 

 hop-u'oodii) is occasionally used to drug the Emu. I have seen bunches of the shrub in small 

 water-holes for that purpose, and the natives told me that after drinlcing the water the Emus 

 walked ' all the same cranky or drunk.' I never obserxed the effects myself. The universal 

 way of cooking Emu in all stages of development, in Central Australia, is by roasting in the 

 ashes and sand. The flesh of an Jimu about the size of a turk-ey is eatable on a pinch, l)ut 

 although I have frequently been meat hungry properly in those parts, I never found the flesh of 

 an adult \im\\ palatable, the fat being too strong and penetrating ; possibly Emu may be an 

 acquired taste, but when I read of a ' delicious broiled Emu steak,' I am inclined to think the 

 writer is imaginative. There is practically no breast meat on an liniu, which is mostly thighs. 

 The primest cut to the Aboriginal mind seems to be the strip of epidermis along the back and 

 over the rump and saddle, with the oily, granulated fat adhering. After eating Emu or greasing 

 himself with the fat, a blackfellow reeks of it, and the smell pervades anything he handles. The 

 blacks obtain sinews from the legs for fastening on spear heads, etc., and use tufts of the feathers 

 for decorative purposes at ceremonies, but they do not use the skin for clothing." 



Writing me in February, iyii,froni Broome Hill, Western .Australia, l\Ir. Tom Carter 

 remarks: — "The Imiiu (Divwu-ns novce-lioUundia } was very plentiful through North-western 

 Australia when 1 lived there, but droughts and wire fences have much diminished its numbers. 

 In the drought of 1894-6 they died wholesale; in the corner of one paddock, on the Gascoyne 

 River, seventy-five dead birds were counted in the space of about two hundred yards. At Point 

 Cloates I saw them regularly come in to water at sheep troughs, while sheep were all round and 

 Aborigines and myself present. They squatted down to drink in this case, perhaps from weakness. 

 Mobs of varying numbers of the poor birds wandered along the beach drinking the sea water, 

 and many were driven into the sea and killed by the blacks, until I gave orders against their 

 doing so. On the great ranges of the North-western Cape they fared better, as there was a 

 permanent pool of water on each side, which were apparently known to all the resident birds, 

 and the ranges furnished an abundant supply of one of their favourite foods, the fruit of the wild 

 Fig-trees. The breeding season was usually in May, when I have noted the greatest number of 

 nests with eggs, but if winter rains are late in falling laying is delayed, and I think that in 

 absolute droughts the birds do not breed. On the 2Sth March, 1887, I shot a female that had 

 eggs of considerable size in the ovaries. Eggs were noted in nest on 25th May, 1S87, and 2Sth 

 May, 1888; eleven is the greatest number I have found in a nest. They breed largely in sandy 

 hills with a growth of Spinifex (Ttiodin), and also on islands of the vast salt marshes extending 

 one hundred miles along the coast north of the Gascoyne River. In the dense forests of Jarrah 

 and Karri in the south-west of this State they are not uncommon, but not easily seen. In 

 March, 1910, I saw where two birds had been drinking at a spring on the edge of Albany 

 Harbour. That summer was unusually long and dry. They are not seen now about Broome 

 Hill, as all the country is fenced." 



