EMU. 
“ The birds, when in good condition, have layers of fat of from 3 to 5 inches 
thick on the breast and back. As much as two and a half gallons of oil, 
when rendered, being obtained from a single bird. This oil is very penetrating, 
and is of considerable commercial value.” 
Mr. P. T. Sandland, writing to me from South Austraha, says : — “ The 
Emus were plentiful years ago, but they were almost wiped out by the 
drought of 1895. I have seen a brood of ten young with the parent bird. 
Numbers die yearly by getting caught in the fences when attempting to get 
over them. They often tear holes in the rabbit-proof fences, when blundering 
over them, and for this reason are slaughtered wholesale by certain pastoralists.” 
As the male usually does most of the incubating, the following notes 
relating to the sitting of the female may be of interest : — 
“ This season (1901) the female Emu made a nest in a secluded corner 
[of a small paddock] amongst the gum-trees, and deposited there five eggs, 
upon which she sat contentedly for nine weeks . . . and in due season 
marched off with three young birds. They all keep by themselves aloof from 
the other birds. 
“ On my old wild run in Port Lincoln they were very plentiful at certain 
seasons ; but a few times that I actually saw the bird run off the nest it was 
a female. In this case, the gardener says that the female bird kept to the nest 
all through the sitting, and walked off with the young ones, and they kept entirely 
together for some weeks, until the other big birds, male and female, gradually 
joined them ; and one day he pointed out to me the Emu with her brood, and it 
was a female bird.”^ 
When Mr. J. P. Rogers was in England he told me that when he was 
camped on the rabbit-proof fence, about one hundred miles east of Perth, he 
noticed what he considered a migratory movement amongst the Emus. They 
went from east to west, and, afterwards, on the approach of the dry season, 
came back again. On coming to the fence they would wander up and down 
looking for an opening, and hundreds of them perished for want of water. 
Mr. Tom Carter, writing from Western Australia, says : — “ The^e birds 
are still abundant through North-West Australia, although in severe droughts 
their numbers decrease very much for a while. The great extent of wire 
fences now in existence on all the sheep-runs must be the cause of many dying, 
as when temporary pools of water outside the paddocks dry up, the birds are 
prevented from reaching other supplies, although when frightened they will 
easily clear a fence of three feet or more in height. Great numbers of Emus, too, 
when undisturbed, will attempt to cross a fence by putting one leg through 
the wires and the other over the top. As the bird’s body goes over the fence, 
the wires cross, and escape is almost hopeless. In the drought which prevailed 
=*= Henry Hoboyd, Tarlee, S.A., Emu, I., p. 144 (1902). 
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