8322 



Birds. 



have yet been exhausted. Judge of the reaction, when, on visiting 

 the nest in a half melancholy, desponding mood, the first thing on the 

 morning of Easter Sunday, the 20th of April, I descried an evident 

 cast-out shell, and, on looking more closely, the striped body of a 

 young emeu protruding from under, — not the wing, for it has none, — 

 but the fostering side of its parent. I hardly knew how to break the 

 tidings in- doors ! The next day produced another, and two days 

 more a third broke its way out of the shell. The bird continued to sit 

 to the end of the week. Two dead chicks were found in two other 

 eggs ; the rest proved addled. 



The eldest young emeu was weakly from the first. A pellicle of 

 skin continued drawn over one eye for several days, and I am not sure 

 it ever obtained its full sight. It died in the fifth week. The other 

 two are in high health and thriving. They are now towards eight 

 months old, have long lost their infantile striped plumage, are ap- 

 parently about half-grown, and very saucy, and are beginning to 

 think themselves veritable emeus. 



1 must not omit one remarkable set of phenomena that now became 

 developed. For the first month the young ones were very tenderly 

 watched and guarded within their house, the father being most 

 assiduous, gentle and attentive in their nurturing. Having somewhat 

 established themselves in the world, they were given a little more 

 liberty. The first time the mother bird caught sight of the little ones 

 she became much excited, seized one of them by the head and threw 

 it a regular summersault up into the air. A scuffle ensued between 

 the big birds, by which I became alarmed for the safety of the young 

 ones, and was obliged to interfere. At first I thought it might be only 

 jealousy or natural excitement that would soon subside, or an odd and 

 antipodean way of showing pleasure, but, with further experience, 

 became convinced it meant mischief on the part of the mother bird. 

 They were therefore continued to be kept separated, but only by a 

 wire fence, in order that they might be so far in company and become 

 familiarized. 



The time arrived when we thought the parent birds at least ought 

 again to associate, and would no doubt be glad of each other's society. 

 They were introduced accordingly by removal of a portion of the 

 fence, when the female bird rushed upon the male, and drove him 

 round and round, endeavouring to strike him with her strong foot for- 

 ward, whenever she could get him into a corner, till I was obliged at 

 last to separate them again. The loss of feathers, if not of blood, was 

 considerable. Here was an unexpected dilemma, beyond the juris- 



