Emu and Ostrich Farming. 



the banquet that followed in the Trades Hall, the premises now 

 belonging- to Messrs Moffat & Turner. 



In course of a conversatioji which followed Mr Thomson said 

 in some places a sound whipping used to be administered to the 

 children at the various turning points, to impress them upon their 

 memory. Mr Dickie said he had inquired at one of the survivors 

 of the march of 1 827 whether any such custom was observed here, 

 and the reply was — *•• No. That belongs to the ages of barbarism ; 

 centuries ago." The Chairman said it might be possible to 

 administer the whipjjing once, but hardly a second time. The 

 children would next year be conspicuous by their absence. 



The thanks of the society were tendered to Mr Dickie, and 

 also to Mr Anderson, bookseller, for the loan of the pamphlet. 



12th Febi'uarf/, 1807. 



Emu and Ostrich Farming in the Highlands of Dumfriesshire. 

 By Mr RiOHAED Bell, of Castle O'er, Langholm. 



The object of this paper is not to subject my hearers to a 

 dry dissertation on Natural History, in which study, I am sure, 

 many among you will be better versed than I am, but rather to 

 offer you a few remarks and stray notes on the keeping of sundry 

 creatures, zoological and ornithological, in confinement, and more 

 particularly on the keeping and breeding in the uncongenial 

 climate of Dumfriesshire the Australian Emu and the South 

 American Ostrich, or Rhea. 



I once stated in a weekly journal, devoted, among other 

 articles, to natural history, that I claimed to be the first person 

 who had succeeded in breeding Emus in Scotland, and challenged 

 contradiction. As none was forthcoming, I think I may safely 

 repeat the boast, and give credit to our own county as the first 

 one in Scotland where these birds were bred. I have all iny life 

 been a lover of pets, and during my younger days these consisted 

 of specimens most easily obtained and most conveniently and 

 surreptitiously kept in a bedroom or outhouse. In the same ratio 

 as my years increased so increased my ambition and the size of 

 my pets, till about the year 1875 these had run from the bulk of 



