SOME SPECIMENS OF AUSTRALIAN FAUNA AND FLORA. 



189 



The chase is cruel, and is only indulged in by stockmen and Bohemians of the 

 plain, who traffic in the skins, for which, unfortunately for the emu, there is a 

 good commercial demand. Before a horse can be of any service as an emu 

 hunter he must become accustomed to the peculiar rustling sound of the long 

 light tail-feathers when the bird is in rapid motion. Further, he must be sound 

 of wind and limb to keep alongside an emu ; and these virtues are centred 

 in some of the veteran stock-horses, which by long practice have become 



The Giant Kingfisher, ox Laughing 

 Jackass. 



accustomed to tread closely upon 



the heels of a racer while the rider 



uses his long stock-whip. Swerve 



as the hunted animal may, the old 



stock-horse never leaves the line. 



In this way the emu is generally 



run down, only horse and whip 



being used. At first he runs with a long clean swinging stride, but as he 



tires the legs bend outward and get farther apart, until the movement is more 



akin to the waddle of a fat barn-yard goose. He struggles along bravely 



until every fragment of strength is gone, and then falls never to rise again. 



\ w 



