Birds. 8319 



three other immature ones that did not come to the birth. The eggs 

 in the incubator did not hatch. 



My poor emeu, which had sat so long, and then was deprived of the 

 natural reward, was very emaciated and out of spirits for some time. 

 On close scrutiny, a day or two after, I found emeus' foot-marks along- 

 several beds in the garden, and tracked one pretty evidently forced 

 between bushes, where it would not voluntarily have gone, as if 

 driven. I learned subsequently they were seen that morning out of 

 their boundaries. My interpretation is, that, knowing of the absence 

 of the family, some stranger entered the premises, which are easily 

 accessible, with or without evil intention, perhaps in ignorance of the 

 bird and its critical condition, perhaps from curiosity, possibly with 

 dog and gun for the purpose of shooting, or with rod and line for 

 fishing, and unwittingly disturbed it, — a strange dog would lead to a 

 fearful commotion, — had left the gate of the enclosure open, carelessly 

 or in alarm, through which the emeus had rushed, had got them back 

 again somehow, and effected his escape, uncognisant, it might be, of 

 the whole mischief. 



During the summer my birds improved, both in plumage and con- 

 dition, upon the previous season. From all I could observe, 1 still 

 believed the smaller one to be the female, the larger the male. On 

 the 29th of December 1 went down, as was often my custom, about 

 four o'clock in the afternoon, to see after their welfare. I was alarmed 

 at finding the larger bird with symptoms of being very unwell. It 

 hissed at me, and strained with its neck violently, as if choking, and 

 I thought it must have got something in its throat. I was going im- 

 mediately for assistance, when I bethought me I would try and get it 

 into its house first, and for this purpose atempted to drive it, when it 

 gave another great retch, and — an egg dropped upon the ground ! 

 The illness was all over ; this bird quietly walked off with the most 

 perfect indifference, and at the -same moment down rushed the other 

 one, in a state of the greatest excitement, rolled the egg — fortunately 

 unbroken by the fall — over and over till pleased with its location, and 

 finally covered it with leaves, thus definitively settling the question of 

 sexes, the extraordinary reversal of habits and manners by which we 

 had been misled, and the crowning fact of the male bird doing all the 

 sitting, and, as I had afterwards the opportunity of witnessing, of 

 bringing up the young ones entirely. 



It was nearly six weeks earlier than the previous season for the 

 laying to commence. In preparation, however, for the occurrence, 

 I had had a much more suitable house built, better protected from 



