FOOD OF EMU 147 



brood of young birds remain an entire year with their 

 parents, and pair off at the breeding season. Many small 

 flocks, much scattered, give an observer who does not 

 habitually make careful notes, a sense of great numbers, 

 which is very misleading. While the emu was formerly 

 met with in all parts of Australia, and therefore could not 

 be said to be scarce ^ it certainly was never an abundant 

 bird, in the sense in which we should call the kangaroo, 

 wallaby, and exotic rabbit abundant. 



Its destruction by the colonists is often very wanton. 

 The blackfellow likes emu, but no white who has tasted 

 emu flesh cares to be at the trouble of cooking a bird for 

 himself. They are shot, therefore, because they are big, 

 or because the gunner wishes to secure a curiosity for 

 himself or his friends, or for any other reason, the food 

 reason being always excepted. The bird is generally very 

 fat, but the flesh is coarse, tough, and tasteless — in a word, 

 not worth the trouble of eating unless a man is starving. 



The food of the emu is largely frugiverous, and like 

 all struthious birds it swallows large quantities of sand 

 and pebbles. In some districts of Australia where smooth 

 pebbles are scarce, I have found the stomachs of emus 

 crammed with sand and coarse grit mingled with vegetable 

 matter. In the desert there are a number of shrubs, 

 brambles, and creeping plants, which bear small fruits : 

 these furnish the bulk of the emu's food. The largest of 

 these fruits is a plum-like blue berry, and of this emus 

 are very fond. In districts where this berry is abundant 

 there are sure to be emus, unless the presence of the 

 settler keeps them away. Probably any sort of vegetation 

 is eaten by them when their favourite food becomes scarce. 

 I have found leaves and stalks in the mass of undigested 

 matter taken from the stomach of a recently killed bird, 

 and I have seen them swallow large snails with the shells, 

 and beetles, and other insects ; for though the general 

 opinion is that the diet of the Struthionidae is entirely of 

 a vegetable nature, this is an error, so far as the two great 

 Australian representatives of the genus are concerned. 

 The Australian cassowary in particular is an almost 



