THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
from the end of 1894 until 1896 immense numbers of birds must have perished. 
In the corner of one paddock I counted seventy-five dead in the space of about 
200 yards square. Mobs of them wandered miserably along the beach, at Point 
Cloates, eventually drinking the sea- water and dying. The natives, on seeing a 
mob approaching, would conceal themselves just off the beach, in an extended 
line, and when the poor birds were opposite the centre of them, the blacks would 
rush out and drive them into the sea. At one well a pair or more of these 
birds for a long time regularly came to drink at the troughs when the sheep 
were there, the water being drawn by hand. I observed them myself on 
several occasions. They squatted down to drink, which is not their usual 
custom. 
“ They feed largely on the wild figs which grow abundantly on the rugged 
ranges, the fruit of the quondong, and many berries and fruits. The stones 
of the quondong are voided unchanged. Several pebbles or stones, up to the 
size of a walnut, are usually found in the gizzard, and occasionally lumps 
of charcoal. The loud ‘ pumping ’ or booming noise is usually uttered by 
the male bird as he approaches water, and I have often heard it at night. 
“ In normal seasons (not dry) the breeding season in the North-West begins 
about the middle of May, when I have seen most eggs. On March 28th, 1887, 
I shot a female with eggs considerably enlarged in the ovary, and first saw eggs 
in the nest May 25th. In 1888, first eggs were seen on May 28th and in 
December I saw ten young not a fortnight old. On November 21st, 1901, 
I saw an Emu at Point Cloates with four young the size of large fowls. 
“ I consider the rusty-red Emus not fully adult and not in good condition ; 
while those that look black at a distance are invariably fat.” 
The Emu is recorded as an inhabitant of the whole of the continent by 
Australian ornithologists, but the species of Western Austraha has been generally 
supposed to be distinct, and was known as D. irroratus. The type (a flat skin) 
described by Bartlett is in the British Museum, and I have examined it in 
company with the late Bowdler Sharpe and Mr. Dudley Le Souef. It is cross- 
barred in a very distinct manner. Mr. Le Souef at once pronounced this skin 
to be that of a young bird, basing this conclusion on his experiences detailed 
in the Emu. Further material received from Mr. H. L. White of Scone, 
N.S.W., has proved the truth of Mr. Le Souef’s convictions ; four skins of 
immature birds from Tucka Tucka being barred and resembling the typical 
skin of D. irroratus. I have also seen a living bird in the Zoological Gardens, 
London, which was moulting, and was partly striped and partly barred, 
indicating a change from the plumage of the so-called D. irroratus to the full 
plumage of D. novce-Tiollandioe. 
The history of D. irroratus is as follows : — A flat skin was described by the 
late A. D. Bartlett at a meeting of the Zoological Society on the 24th of May, 
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