THE BIRDS OF COOLABAH AND BREWARRINA— NORTH. 161 



DrOM^DS NOVvE-HOl.l-ANDI^. 

 Emu. 

 Casuarins )iocin-]ioUandice, Lath., Ind. Orn., ii., p. 665 (1789). 



L>ro»ii(iiis iiovie-holl(()idi(e, Gould, Bds. Austr., t'ol., vi., pi. 1 

 (1848) ; Id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., ii., p. 200 (1865). 



Dronoeus novrv-hollaiidirp, Salvad., Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., xxvii., 

 p. 586 (1895); North, Nests and Eggs Austr. Bds. 2ud.ed. 

 iv., pt. iv. p. 398 (1914). 



While driving through Willeroou Station, three of these 

 birds rose up from the ground, where they had been partially 

 concealed by some low bushes, and walked slowly away. They 

 were about seventy yards away from the vehicle, and as the 

 day was extremely hot, the horse was going at an easy pace, 

 and neither the horse nor birds apparently cared to break into 

 a run. Not met with at Brewarrina. 



Only six Emus seen in three weeks, in countrjf these 

 birds frequent, is a poor record. Both between Narrabri and 

 Moree, and Gilgandra and Coonamble, a decade ago, large flocks 

 of Emus could be seen any day from the passing train, running 

 alongside of the railway fence, or rather in some places, where 

 the fence ought to be. 



The Emu Avas first figured in Phillip's " Voyage to Botany 

 Bay," in 1789, as the New Holland Cassowary, and was char- 

 acterised the following year by Latham in his " Index Ornitho- 

 logius," as CasHurius 7iov(e-]tollmidice, Captain Tench in his 

 " Settlement at Port Jackson," in 1793, fii'st making us 

 acquainted with its nests, eggs, and young. But the Emu no 

 longer roams through the scrub between Port Jackson and 

 Botany Bay, as in Phillip's and Tench's time. Ever since the 

 settlement of the State, it has gradually been driven farther 

 back. Its numbers, too, are rapidly decreasing by both birds and 

 eggs being destioyed, in a ruthless manner by men employed for 

 these purposes, for does not the Emu eat grass, and disturb 

 breeding ewes F — unpardonable offences in the eyes of the 

 pastoralist — besides the young birds have other enemies to 

 contend with in the shape of dingoes and the introduced fox. 



