200 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



to me as tiresome a task as 1 ever recollect to have 

 encountered in the colony." Their eggs are held in 

 much estimation, and, according to the same authority, 

 the natives almost live upon them during the hatching 

 season. They are as large as those of an Ostrich, with 

 equally thick shells coloured of a beautiful dark green, 

 and are usually six or seven in number ; but we have 

 no information as to the manner in which the wild 

 birds form their nest. It probably consists, like that of 

 other Ostriches, of a mere cavity scooped in the earth. 

 They seem to pair together with tolerable constancy, 

 and the male bird, as in some other monogamous races, 

 sits and hatches the young. 



In captivity the Emeus are perfectly tame, and speedily 

 become domesticated. They are easily acclimated in 

 this country, and have been bred without difficulty in 

 various collections ; in those, for instance, of his late 

 Majesty at Windsor, and of the Marquis of Hertford at 

 Ragley, from the former of which the old birds now in 

 the Society's Menagerie were obtained. 



