EMU. 
lines towards the abdomen, which is entirely white or whitish. Total length 
about 30.5 cm. ; culmen, 23 mm. ; tarsus, 58 ; middle toe and claw, 35. 
Albino. “Mr. A. C. Le Souef* of the Zoological Gardens, Sydney, draws attention to 
a letter he has discovered, dated Warialda, N.S.W., December 3rd, 1887, in which 
a white Emu is offered for sale to the Society. It was about two and a half 
months old and stood 3 feet high. No record is given of its purchase.” 
Nest. “ Usually a flat bed or platform, composed of grass or other herbage plucked by the 
bird round about the site, and trampled down. Sometimes bark, pieces of sticks, 
and leaves of trees are used, intermingled with a few of the bird’s own feathers. 
Shape generally oval, about 4 feet by 2| feet in size, and about 2 inches in thickness. 
Situation in open country, usually near the base of a tree or stump ; at other 
times in rank herbage or in a dry bed of a polygonum swamp. Sometimes no 
nest is formed. The nest or bed is constructed or augmented as the laying and 
incubation proceeds ” (Campbell). 
Eggs. “ Clutch, usual average nine, but varies from seven to eighteen ; elliptical in 
shape, a few exceptions being more swollen about the centre. The appearance of 
a collection of freshly-gathered unblown specimens is very beautiful ; the surfaces 
are rough (not unli k e shagreen), with granulations of dark green upon a shell of 
light metallic or verdigris-green. In some clutches the granulations are so closely 
placed and flattened or squeezed down as to hide completely the interstices of light 
green. In some instances the eggs are of a more uniform dark green. The 
granulations are shghtly lustrous, but as incubation proceeds becomes much 
darker and poHshed, while the interstices become bluer or dingy in shade. 
Dimensions in inches of a normal clutch 5.62 to 5.06 by 3.68 to 3.31 ” (Campbell). 
Incubation-period. Dr. Oustalet [Nouv. Arch. Mus. Paris (3), VIII., p. 262) says that in 
Paris the male incubated an egg for seventy days. The young one died at birth. 
Dr. Sclater {P.Z.S., p. 205 (1859)) gives the length of incubation as fifty-six 
days in an incubator. 
Mr. A. J. North {Proc. Linn. Soc., N.8.W. (2), IV., p. 1029 (1890)) mentions 
one egg being incubated by two hens in forty-nine days. 
Mr. A. J. Campbell {Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc., p. 221 (1896)) says : — “ Hatching 
was completed at the expiration of eight weeks from the time the bird commenced 
to sit, but it would depend whether the bird sat very closely or not if the hatching 
would be completed one or two days before or after the expiration of eight weeks.” 
Mr. H. Holroyd {Emu, I., p. 144 (1902)) says the female sat for nine weeks ; 
{Emu, II., p. 182 (1903)) that the egg was hatched “ after fifty-six days of sitting 
by the male bird.” 
Mr. C. H. M’Lennan {Emu, VIII., p. 42) writes ; — “ From the time the last egg is 
laid until the first downy chick is hatched varies from fifty-four to fifty-seven 
days.” 
I consider eight weeks the usual length of incubation ; breeding months April 
to November. 
\ 
This characteristic Australian species, once so common all over the continent, 
was first recorded by the early settlers under Governor Phillip. Tench j — whose 
book, I think, was published before that of Phillip — gives the first mention 
of it in print. He writes of the double feathers from one shaft| as having 
been omitted by Goldsmith in his account of the Emu of South America 
[Rhea]. He also dissected the bird (which he says was shot with a single 
* Emu, VI., p. 128 (1907). 
t Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay, p. 123 (1789). 
J The shaft and after-shaft of the feathers of the Emu are approximately of the same length. 
§ In this genus there is no after-shaft. 
5 
