1480 The Zoologist — December, 1868. 



eggs several were eaten, and found of unquestionable excellence : as they weigh about 

 one pound and a quarter each, it does not take many to make a good-sized omelet. 

 The beautiful dark green colour of the shells renders them most elegant objects when 

 mounted as cups iu gold or silver. The shell is very siout, even after the young 

 chick has escaped; and were it not for the singular breaking up of the arrangement of 

 the structure just before hatching, which was first observed aud described by my late 

 lamented friend Mr. J. Quekelt, it would appear almost impossible for the chick to 

 force its way through the slouy walls of 



. . . . that antenatal tomb 

 Where the young bird dreams of the life to come. 



The young at birth are most interesting-looking creatures: in colour they do not 

 resemble the mixture of dull brown aud gray thai characterizes the loose plumage of 

 the old birds, but are striped longitudinally on the sides, like a zebra, the markings 

 being dark on a light ground. Fearful of any injury that might arise from the parents, 

 the young emeus were reared by hand, being lor a lew days crammed with chopped 

 lettuce, rib-grass, clover, leaves, and custard. Before the end of the first week they had 

 learned to feed themselves, and their chief food now consists of grass, rib-grass 

 (Plantago lanceolata), cabbage, clover, with some bread and meal. Their mode of 

 drinking is peculiar: they spoon the water up with the lower mandible, and allow it to 

 ruu to the back of the mouth. They are now about four feet high, and weigh about 

 sixteen pounds to eighteen pounds each. They are so lame that they became a trouble 

 when at large, as they could not be kept out of the house; and now they run towards 

 any one approaching the iuclosure, uttering a soliciting note of "peep, peep," very 

 unlike the pumping sound uttered by the adult female. Their gambols and play are 

 strangely peculiar. The wings aie so very rudimentary that the action is entirely 

 confined to the neck aud legs. They leap, they kick out with one leg, roll on their 

 sides and backs, kicking with both legs: again they leap up, and chase each other in 

 the most good-hutnuurtd frolic. Iu the midst of this play a rush comes against the 

 strong wire-fencing that separates the iuclosure from the field iu which the old birds 

 are grazing: it is llieir unnatural mother making a dash against the stout wire which 

 alone protects them from death at the hauds, or rather the legs, of their most uu- 

 uffectionate parent. With regard to the emeu as an object of sport, Sir Thomas 

 Mitchell, in his ' Eastern Australia,' writes, "It is one thing for a swift dog to over- 

 take an emeu, and another to kill or even to seize it. Our dogs are only now learning 

 to seize emeus, although they had chased and oveitakeu many. To attempt to seize 

 them by the side or leg is dangerous, as an emeu could break a leg with a kick ; but 

 if they seize them by the neck, as good dogs learn to do, the bird is immediately over- 

 thrown, and easily killed. The flesh resembles a beef-steak, and has a very agreeable 

 flavour, being far preferable to that of the kangaroo." — W. B. Tegetmeier, in the 

 ' Field.' 



Cuckoos in Confinement. — Some years since, when living in London, iu walking 

 down Oxford-street, I saw a boy with a number of nestling birds for sale, aud amongst 

 them a young cuckoo. This I bought. At that time I had a fiue collection of soft- 

 bill birds — nightingales, blackcaps, whitethroat, redstart, robin, titlark, &c. All these 

 birds I fed on scraped lean beef, aud hard-boiled yolk ol egg, mixed moist with clean 

 water: this, with a good supply of meal-worms, which I bred for them in large 



