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THE AUSTRALIAN EMEU. 
feathers everywhere except on the throat and the sides of the head. 
His feathers are remarkable for their twofold structure ; that is, from 
each bulb spring two stems, exceedingly flexible, and furnished with 
loose barbs. These feathers are very long and narrow. 
Down to 1859, only one species of emeu was known. A second 
species was then described by Bartlett, and the specific distinctions 
pointed out by him have since been admitted by all naturalists. 
Each species seems to occupy its own part of the " island-continent " 
— the emeu proper keeping to the east, and the spotted emeu to the 
west. The limits of the respective territories cannot be precisely 
defined ; and as to the older species, it has been destroyed by the 
colonists in many places where it was formerly numerous. We know 
from the relations of the earlier voyagers that it abounded in the 
neighbourhood of Botany Bay and Port Jackson, on the south coast of 
Australia, and in the neighbouring islands; but now it would be as easy 
to find one as to find a wolf in England. Even in Tasmania they are 
so rare, that any enthusiast desirous of making their acquaintance 
must search for months, and penetrate into the remotest parts of the 
isle. On the mainland they have been gradually driven back into the 
interior, and nowhere can they be seen in great numbers except in the 
plains of the south. 
In localities where the white men refrain from hunting these 
birds, they show very little timidity, and do not hesitate to approach 
the tents of the pioneers and emigrants. They are described as 
living in troops of three to five individuals, and as having all the 
habits of the ostrich ; but the ostrich and the emeu diSer so con- 
siderably in captivity, that it would be strange if no difference 
existed in their natural conditions of liberty. But, in truth, we 
know very little of the emeu as a free creature. Ramel furnishes 
a few particulars, which may be accepted as accurate, and are 
interesting enough to justify quotation : — 
Wherever there are gi-ass and water, he says, the traveller hears, 
at sunrise and sunset, the guttural cry of the emeu, not unlike 
the rattle of a drum. In the virgin districts of the continent, he 
loves to feed on the vast plains or the basaltic hills; but in places 
