2338 THE TINAMUS, FLIGHTLESS BIRDS, ETC. 



absence of a helmet, the complete feathering of the head and neck, and the normal 

 length of the claw of the second toe; the claws of all three toes being much shorter 

 than in the allied genus. They are further characterized by the beak being de- 

 pressed and broad, instead of narrow, compressed, and keeled, as they are by the 

 absence of the bare black quills in the still more rudimentary wing. Standing next 

 in point of size among living birds to the ostrich, the common emeu (Drom&us 

 novtzhollanditf} of Eastern Australia, has the general hue of the plumage light 

 brown, mottled in some parts with gray; the individual feathers being of a uniform 

 blackish gray, except near the tips, where they are black, with a broad subterminal 

 baud of rufous. This species which, from incessant pursuit, has been well-nigh ex- 

 terminated even on the mainland, formerly also existed in Tasmania and the islands 

 of Bass Straits, where it has completely disappeared. In Western Australia it is 

 replaced by the spotted emeu (D. irroratus), a bird of more slender build, having 

 the feathers barred with white and dark gray, and terminating in a black spot with 

 a rufous margin. While the two sexes of the adult are nearly similar, the young 

 of the common emeu have the ground color of the plumage grayish white, with two 

 stripes of black down the back, and two others on each side, both being divided by 

 a narrow median streak of white, these stripes being continued onto the head, where 

 they break up into spots, while there are also others on the fore-neck and breast, 

 which terminate on the thighs. Like the cassowaries, the emeus are represented by 

 an extinct species from the superficial deposits of Australia. 



At one time abundant on the mainland of Australia, in the neighbor- 

 hood of Botany bay and Port Jackson, where it formed as characteris- 

 tic a feature in the landscape as the kangaroos and wallabies, the emeu is now only 

 to be met with in the far interior, where it is yearly becoming scarcer. Unlike the 

 cassowaries, emeus are inhabitants of the plains and open forest country, where, 

 although strictly monogamous during the breeding season, they associate in small 

 parties. Their food consists of fruits, roots, grass, and other herbage, their chief 

 feeding time being the cool of the early morning. Possessed of great keenness 

 of vision, and swift of foot, emeus rival the kangaroos in speed, and afford an 

 exciting chase with dogs. Such hunts do not end till the birds are thoroughly 

 exhausted, when, if seized by the neck, in order to avoid kicks from their powerful 

 legs, they are soon pulled down. As with the other members of the subclass, the 

 task of incubation falls to the share of the cock, by whom the eggs, which vary in 

 number from nine to thirteen, are brooded, according to observations made on 

 specimens by Sir E. G. L,oder, for a period of from fifty-four to sixt) 7 -four days. 

 The nest is but a poor affair, consisting merely of a shallow hollow, scooped in the 

 sandy soil. In color, the eggs vary from a dark bottle green to a light bluish 

 green, their length being just short of five inches, and their transverse diameter 

 three and three-fourths inches. During the breeding season, at. least, the hen emeu 

 utters a peculiar, loud booming sound, which is produced through the intervention 

 of a pouch communicating with the windpipe, on the front of which it opens by a 

 small aperture; this structure being confined to the female sex. From its larger 

 size, the hen emeu is very liable to be mistaken for the cock. Writing of the differ- 

 ence in the habits and appearance of the two sexes, Mr. Bennett observes, of a pair 



