THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
I have found the nest on low ground, even in depressions. The lignum 
swamps are another favourite nesting place, and there, of course, the bird 
usually selects one of the hummock islands. Building the nest is not a matter 
of much importance. The eggs are as often as not laid upon the bare ground, 
surrounded with a ring of twigs, leaves, and other loose litter, in the outline 
of the Emu’s body. There is generally a slight depression where the bird 
has scratched away the loose earth, but occasionally the eggs are found 
lying upon a bed of dry leaves. The female lays in the early morning, an egg 
every second day, and I notice two distinct types of egg both in shape and colour. 
One of them is pale green, and round in shape, in contrast with the other, 
which is more of an oval or pear shape, the shell a deep, dark shade of green, 
and much thinner than in the other type. From the time the last egg is laid 
until the first downy chick is hatched varies from fifty-four to fifty-seven 
days, and that is the period when the habits of the birds form the most interesting 
study. As far as my personal observations go, a full clutch varies from 
seven to eleven eggs. The greatest number I found in one nest was seventeen, 
but in this instance I think that two birds laid in one nest. There is a good 
deal of controversy upon this point, and it is a matter on which few naturalists 
are able to get direct evidence, but on two or three occasions I have satisfied 
myself that a pair of females used the same nest, and have studied the tracks 
of the birds closely in order to make sure of it. My opinion is that in every 
case where an exceptional number of eggs were found in one nest, it was used 
by more than one female. . . . The Emu’s habit of drumming near the 
nest is one of the best aids in finding it. The female generally drums in the 
evening, and by drawing a straight line on the ground in the direction of the 
drumming you have a pointer in searching for the nest the next day. In the 
laying season the female generally booms early in the evening, about twelve 
resonant notes in succession, with a short interval between each. The 
drumming of the female is loud and rather harsh towards the end of the call, 
the note of the male sharper and more distinct. Few birds of the bush take 
a larger share in the hatching and rearing of the family than the male Emu. 
He is the first to sit as soon as the clutch is complete, and rarely goes far from the 
nest site from the time the first egg is laid until the young are hatched, while the 
female during the day, when she is off duty, wanders over a considerable 
range of country. She generally returns to the nest towards evening, and 
relieves the male bird for an hour or two each night, commencing about the 
second week and eontinuing from fourteen to twenty nights. Afterwards the 
male has complete charge, and though in the early stages of incubation he 
only sits from two to four hours each day, at a later period he seems loth to 
leave the nest even when alarmed. At first, when any suspicious sound excites 
the vigilant male, he leaves the eggs at once, and makes away stealthily 
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