Emu and Ostrich Farming. 49 



lacerated by the kick of an Emu in the back when he entered the 

 park to view the birds. The kick of an Emu is a serious, if not a 

 dangerous one, and is delivered in a forward direction and not 

 from behind like the kick of a horse. When sporting they spring 

 up in the air, kicking sideways and backwards, more like a cow. 

 In addition to the blow the large claws make a lacerated wound. 

 When trying to catch these birds one should always be provided 

 with a shield of wicker-work, so as to guard themselves against 

 serious, if not fatal mjury. As previously stated, I purchased my 

 parent birds from Jamrach in October, 1875, but as they fought 

 so persistently on their arrival home, I was afraid at first that 

 they were both of one sex. The one which I came to know was 

 the female was so harassed by the other that she could get no 

 food, and the points of her wings, or rather wing bones, were so 

 lacerated by dashing against the fence in her endeavours to escape 

 from her mate that they bled for about ten days, and I thought 

 the veins were opened and that she would bleed to death. I 

 therefore ran a fence across the field and separated them. They 

 remained so during all the winter of 1875-1876, which was the 

 cause, 1 have no doubt, of my losing a brood that year. In 

 April, 1876, on my return from Edinburgh, where I had spent the 

 winter, I again allowed them to run together. I was afraid they 

 would again fight, but was gratified to find that they were most 

 peacably disposed towards each other. During all that summer 

 and up till February, 1877, there was nothing in their appearance 

 or otherwise to enable me, in my ignorance, to distinguish their 

 sex, but on February 17th my shepherd, under whose special care 

 the birds were placed during my absence in town, found three 

 eggs lying together in a corner of the field. As I had been in the 

 country on the previous day, and being on the look out for eggs 

 had searched the field for them, and had, as I thought, looked into 

 this very corner, I concluded from the fact of three eggs being 

 found at once that both birds were laying. I found I was mis- 

 taken, however, and my hopes of securing a brood were now 

 increased. The female laid regularly every third day at first, but 

 afterwards a period of four days elapsed between the deposit of 

 each egg. Altogether 19 were laid that season — the second year 

 she laid 42 — and when I saw from certain symptoms that 

 " Tommy " wished to sit, I made an artificial nest in the corner 

 where most of the eggs had been laid, and built a bower of spruce 



