44 P^(^f" Magazines, &€. [ist^'july 



detected — a surprising circumstance with a bird so large as the 

 Emu. The female may generally be seen making a straight 

 line for the nest in the evening, and wandering off from it again 

 at dawn. Nearing the nest the course of both birds is always 

 erratic ; they circle about it for a time, approaching from all 

 points of the compass. However the trails may vary they all 

 unite at one point, and thence for about fifty yards there is a 

 straight line for the nest, which from much trampling finally 

 becomes as clearly defined as a beaten ' pad.' Even when the 

 female lets him off duty for a few hours at night the male is 

 never far distant, and on the first sign or sound of alarm the 

 faithful sentinel makes straight for the nest, his feathers ruffled 

 up in fury until he looks quite a formidable adversary. If the 

 intruder be a tame dog or a dingo the bird goes straight at him, 

 pecking and kicking, and soon drives him off. The male Emu 

 is a match for more than one dingo. I have on occasions seen 

 him keep two or three hungry dingoes at bay, and after a battle 

 lasting perhaps twenty minutes drive them off, though they 

 prefer the flesh of the Emu even to that of the kangaroo, and 

 manage to kill a great many of the birds when partly grown. 

 After the young are hatched the female still takes the lesser 

 share of the trouble. For two or three weeks both parents are 

 in charge of the brood. When they are wandering in search of 

 food or water the male is invariably the advance guard, while 

 the hen brings up the rear, but when the mother finally leaves 

 the family as they gain strength the ' old man ' changes his 

 tactics and always follows the young. With them it may be 

 truly said that eternal vigilance is the price of safety, and for 

 his natural enemies the male Emu is ever as alert as he is 

 intrepid. He is quite aware that the dingo, whom he has most 

 to fear, is likely to attack the young from the rear, through 

 having first crossed their trail and then followed up the scent, 

 hence his change of disposition as soon as the hen deserts him. 

 Any suspicious object seen for the first time greatly excites his 

 curiosity. Standing stock still for a while, he investigates the 

 strange object closely, then, with head and neck poised, slowly • 

 approaches it, uttering now and again that booming note 

 peculiar to his kind, flapping his tuft-like immature wings as the 

 birds always do when drumming." 



[The only debatable ground Mr. M'Lennan raises is at the 

 beginning of his capital article, when he states " the nesting 

 season begins as early as tJie montJi of Jtine, and extends to 

 November." Does he mean that eggs may be found between 

 these months, or are the young hatched by November, and is 

 that season peculiar to the Mallee } Reference to Campbell's 

 " Nests and Eggs," p. i,o6i, shows that in Riverina (not more 

 than lOO miles as the crow flies from Mr. M'Lennan's locality) 

 the census for an Emu-egger's camp gave the total finding 



