144 KING GEORGE'S SOUND 



for some purpose. In such cases there was generally 

 evidence that an egg had been broken in the nest. Was 

 the ejected egg pushed out to maintain an odd number ? 



The emu is generally described as a gregarious bird, but 

 it is only partially so. I believe that it sometimes goes in 

 family parties ; but odd birds scouring the plains are an 

 everyday sight in the interior where emus are abundant. 

 And birds may be seen feeding alone in districts where 

 the traveller may ride for days without seeing another. 

 The hen and her young, also, are often found solitary ; for 

 though the cock incubates, the hen seems to take charge 

 of the hatched young. This is contrary to the experience 

 of a keeper at one of our public gardens, who told me that 

 the cock of a pair of emus which bred in the grounds, 

 showed great solicitude in caring for the five chicks which 

 were hatched from a clutch of thirteen eggs. But perhaps 

 the habits of birds and animals in captivity undergo much 

 change. The fact that only five eggs out of thirteen were 

 hatched showed that the birds, although in their native 

 country, were not living under natural conditions. 



The emu has been driven from all the thickly settled 

 districts, and is now seldom seen near the dwellings of 

 men, even on the most remote of back-runs. In 1889, and 

 on the occasions of a few other visits within a couple of 

 years of that date, emus might be found at the back of the 

 Stirling range in scanty numbers, and generally under 

 circumstances which pointed to their being chance visitors 

 in the neighbourhood, though I found one nest at a spot 

 some fifty miles north of Albany. Still further north, as 

 nearly as I can guess another fifty miles beyond Stirling 

 range, small flocks of emus, four or five to a dozen in 

 number, were to be found on all the occasions I rode so 

 far afield. 



I shall have occasion to mention this incidentally in 

 subsequent chapters ; but I think it will be well to finish 

 my remarks on its habits in this place 



When emus are sighted on the open plains of the 

 interior they are often travelling in an apparently straight 

 line at a very fast pace. I have chased them, and found 



