54 Emu and Ostrich Farming. 



of such mixture as the pigs got, varying this with maize. The 

 bones of Emus bred in confinement are apt to become very brittle 

 if the young- birds are not supplied with lime, and many losses are 

 sustained by breeders who are not aware of this fact. I dis- 

 covered for myself the necessity of giving- them lime by observing 

 the young birds picking some off a wall. Ever afterwards I had 

 lime rubbish in their " run," of which they consumed a great 

 quantity. I only lost one from brittle bones ; on running through 

 a hole in a hedge, when frolicking, it broke its thigh bone, when 

 six months old. I put its leg in splints, but it was no use, so I 

 put it out of pain, got it stuffed, and presented it to the Edinburgh 

 Museum of Science and Art, where it remains to be seen by 

 anyone interested or desirous of studying a young Emu at an 

 older stage of life than the one you have just seen. 



As a proof of the hardihood of these birds, I may say that 

 out of thirty-six hatched none ever died a natural death, and 

 that I only lost five, all from violence, viz., the one mentioned 

 before, three starved to death, and the one you have seen, 

 which was killed by a log of wood falling upon it. None 

 died from the rigour of our climate alone. Young Emus 

 are most amusing creatures, as, from a few weeks old, they 

 perform all sorts of antics, such as throwing themselves on 

 their backs, then leaping a considerable height off the ground, 

 meanwhile kicking in the same way as they do when adult and 

 mean mischief. One performance which they went through was 

 of another character, being admirable from its solemnity and the 

 graceful attitudes of the performers. It consisted of a dance in 

 the nature of a quadrille. They would practice some preliminary 

 steps, then all meet in a common centre, with their breasts 

 brought close together and their heads and necks stretched 

 straight up in the air, then they would open out, change places, 

 and repeat the manoeuvre over and over again. This dance 

 caused much more sober wonder to the spectators than the mere 

 amusement derived from the ridiculous antics before described. 

 Baby Emus, however, are indued with the same cantankerous 

 nature as human babies, when mama wishes them to "show off" 

 before female visitors ; they sometimes won't " work," and when I 

 wished to " set the machinery goiug " I had frequently to call in 

 the aid of my children, who knew what to do. This consisted in 

 throwing themselves about on the g-rass in the same convulsive 



