372 DIET. [CHAP, ix, 



adherence to foreign fashions, call to mind Cowper's 

 fable " Pairing Time Anticipated," in which, 



" The birds, conceiving a design 

 To forestall sweet St. Valentine," 



verified the proverb, " Marry in haste, and repent at 

 leisure," the moral of the whole being, 



" Choose not alone a proper mate, 

 But proper time to marry." 



The diet of Emeus co'nsists of grain and vegetables ; 

 cabbages and biscuits are much given to them, and it may 

 be suggested that barley-bread, or the rye-bread which 

 in some parts of Europe is the common food of man 

 and beast, would be an inexpensive and convenient form 

 in which to lay before them the farinaceous portion of 

 their daily mess. A couple of Emeus would cost much 

 about the same as a pair of small ponies to keep. The 

 eggs are of a uniform dark bottle-green. The new- 

 hatched young are elegantly striped with dark brown on 

 a fawn-coloured ground, like guinea-chicks on a very 

 large scale. A peculiarity in their plumage deserves 

 pointing out. Mr. Yarrell, speaking of feathers, in an 

 interesting paper in the first volume of the Transactions 

 of the Zoological Society* says, " The accessory plume 

 requires to be noticed. This is usually a small downy 

 tuft, which not only assumes a very different character 

 in the feathers of different species, but is even very 

 dissimilar in the feathers of different parts of the body 



of the same bird The four species of Struthious 



birds afford remarkable instances of the variety that 

 occurs in this accessory plume, even in subjects so 



* Page 13. 



