422 



EMEU. 



to the front, while those of the ostrich have only two. 

 The claws, also, have something of the form of those 

 of the rasorial, or scraping birds, while those of the 

 ostrich have more the appearance of nails. The 

 feathers on the emeu are all of a loose and flocculent 

 texture, intermediate in appearance between the fea- 

 thers of flying birds and loose and silky hair, matted 

 into small locks, but none of them have that graceful 

 form which is so much admired in the produced 

 feathers of the ostrich. The feathers are of a dull 

 sooty brown colour, with some markings of obscure 

 grey, which appear as if the darker colour had been 

 worn off. The head and neck are small in propor- 

 tion to the size of the bird, and are nearly desti- 

 tute of feathers. The wings are very short, of the 

 same sooty colour as the back, and the only feathers 

 which they contain are loose and hairy down over the 

 sides. They act as balancers when the bird runs, 

 but they are totally useless for flight. The bill is of 

 mean length, straight, and ridged on the culmen, but 

 does not advance in the form of a plate on the fore- 

 head. The young are streaked with brown and dull 

 white, and they retain for a considerable time a por- 

 tion of the down with which they are overed*when 

 they leave the shell, intermixed with the young 

 plumage. The sides of the head are thick with this 

 down after the birds have attained considerable size. 

 They have sometimes been figured in this state as 

 the mature birds, and thus led to the forming of very 

 false notions of them. In their mature plumage, the 

 (wo sexes differ little from each other in colour. 



The food of the emeu consists of vegetable sub- 

 stances, such as grass, buds, berries, and roots : and 

 from the structure of its toes and claws it is probable 

 that it may occasionally scrape the ground in search 

 of the last. It is, however, a very shy and timid 

 animal in its native haunts, the wilds of Australia ; and 

 it is so very swift footed, that very little is known of 

 it in a state of nature, farther than can be observed 

 when it is hunted. Of course it nestles on the ground, 

 although most probable in the extended copses, or 

 " bush" as they are called in that country, as these 

 are the places in which it seeks safety when hunted 

 by dogs, and if it can reach them it is in general safe. 

 The egga are about five or six in a hatch, nearly the 

 same size and shape of those of the ostrich, but of a 

 sea-green colour. They are edible, and one reason 

 why the number of the birds is but small as compared 

 with the extent of their pasture, is the assiduity with 

 which the eggs are sought after by the " bush-rangers," 

 or runaway convicts, and the more lynx-eyed abori- 

 ginal inhabitants. It does not appear that these birds 

 form any very regular nest, or, indeed, a nest of any 

 kind, and the formation of nests is not a general prac- 

 tice with ground birds, few of the gallinaceous birds 

 giving themselves that trouble. What may be the 

 physiological cause is not known, but the physical 

 fact is certain, that birds are careful in the formation 

 of their nests in proportion as they are air birds, and 

 depend upon the wing for the finding of their subsist- 

 ence. It should seem from this that, as we have 

 had occasion to remark in some previous articles of 

 this work, the production of feathers fit for rapid or 

 continuous flight, is the operation which in the 

 feathered tribes requires the greatest care. We find 

 evidences of this curious fact throughout the whole 

 class of birds, as they all have a nest carefully 

 prepared, and remain longer in it, in proportion as 

 they are more decidedly birds of flight ; an4 even 



among the ground birds which do not, as we haye 

 said, form elaborate nests in any instance, we have a 

 gradation in the rude and rudimental place for the 

 hatching. The ostrich may be regarded as the most 

 completely wingless of birds with whose manners we 

 are acquainted, and the ostrich deposits her oggs upon 

 the bare sand, though she does not abandon them then, 

 especially when the cold nights and the dew (for there 

 is dew even on Sahara) set in, as is stated in the vulgar 

 accounts of the bird. The emeu is not ah inhabitant 

 of quite such barren places as the ostrich, and she 

 therefore, we believe, generally, if not in variably, drops 

 her eggs in the bush, and both male and female sit 

 upon them. There have been some peculiarities 

 noticed of the emeu in a state of domestication, of 

 which we shall have to take some notice aftersvards, 

 but no inference can be drawn from them as to the 

 conduct of the birds in a state of free nature. 



In their native haunts among the plains and brushes 

 of Australia, the emeu.s have, since the colonisation 

 of the country by Europeans, had two sets of enemies 

 to contend with, besides the native dogs, which of 

 course have been enemies to them under all circum- 

 stances. 



In the open plains, it is not very easy for the colo- 

 nists to come so near the emeus as to make them gun 

 sport, and lying in wait in the bush is not a very noble 

 sport. Thus they, in general, prefer (we believe) 

 coursing the birds'with swift dogs. The dog must be 

 very swift in order to come up with the emeu, and 

 the coming up with the herd is rather more ticklish 

 than that with animals which are are coursed in 

 European sport. The emeu kicks with vast force ; 

 and the size and vigour of the foot are such that, if 

 the stroke were to take effect, it would fracture the 

 skull of the strongest dog, and lay him dead on the 

 ground in an instant ; the dog thus requires to lie 

 trained in a peculiar manner. He must not make his 

 approach directly in the rear of the bird, as in that 

 case, the stroke of the foot would take effect, and 

 the triumph of the bird would be final. He must 

 come to the side and seize the body of the prey, in 

 which case he is safe, and the emeu is subdued at 

 once. But even when the dog is so trained, the bird 

 has the better of him in the first part of the chace, 

 and it is only when the run is so long that it loses 

 wind, that it can be taken by the dog, be his racing 

 what it may. 



This, is a curious fact in the different economy of 

 birds and mammalia. As a denizen of the air, a bird 

 is lungs all over, and docs not appear to lose wind 

 under any circumstances ; the fact of its falling a prey 

 to another bird in the air, appearing rather to be the 

 failure, or the inferiority of muscular exertion. But 

 on the ground, which is the proper arena of the mam- 

 malia as a class, and not that of the birds, it seems 

 from this case of the emeu, that the bird fails from 

 laboriousness of breathing. This is a very curious 

 subject, but we have no room, neither is the present 

 the place for entering into any explanation of it, in 

 all probability it would not be very easily explained, 

 until some farther observation and investigation have 

 been made. Indeed the peculiar circumstances which 

 adapt classes of animals to their elements, have been 

 too little attended to by writers on natural history. 



As the European settler, with his hound, is the 

 enemy of the emeu upon the open plain, so the native 

 Australian, with his spear, is its enemy in the bush. 

 There he lies in wait j and as, by being practised ' 



