EMU-WREN. 
for the complete details. I extract the following items : “ Each pair of 
birds keeps to its particular haunt throughout the year. After travelling some 
distance in search of food, the birds will invariably be found back at 
the home-corner in the evening or morning. . . The young of the last 
brood remain with their parents until May or June, when they are driven 
off to seek companions and a haunt of their own. They are not permitted 
to remain in the area which their parents inhabit. Though generally 
considered to be weak flyers, I find that, should occasion arise, these birds 
are capable of sustained flight. Particularly is this the case with the female. 
The angle at which the tail is held previous to alighting rather gives the 
impression that its author is exhausted, but this is not so. The male Emu- 
Wren — or ‘ Blue-beard ’ as he is called locally — retains his blue throat 
throughout the year, and is never seen ragged and unkempt as are the males 
of the Wren Warblers ( Malurus ). The manners and habits of the birds under 
notice appear intermediate between those of the Acanthizae and the Maluri. 
In the strain of their feeble song, which is, however, uttered by both sexes, 
and also in the nest building, they resemble the Wren Warblers. Again, 
their alarm notes, their calls to one another, their method of capturing some 
of their food, the female’s manner of dropping from the nest when disturbed, 
and the attaining by the young of the full plumage from the nest, all indicate 
kinship with the Tit Warblers. . . The female does all the work of nest- 
construction, and, being a wise little creature, stops work at II a.m. and 
does not resume until nearly 4 p.m. The interval is spent in ‘Blue-beard’s’ 
company, feeding and resting. . . The eggs are generally laid by 11 a.m. 
When sitting, the female returns to her duties at the same hour, having 
quitted the nest between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. She also takes a short feeding 
flight again in the evening. . . My observations show that an egg is laid 
each day till the clutch is complete, and the female begins to brood on the 
day on which the last egg is laid. She does all the brooding, which extends 
over 10 or 12 days. When first hatched the young are naked, except 
for a few tufts of blackish down on the head, shoulders and tail. They 
become fledged rapidly, the blue feathers of the males appearing on the fifth 
day. If the young are constantly inspected the parents become very 
apprehensive, and soon remove the brood from the nest. In one case the 
chicks were among the rushes as early as the eighth day. Both parents 
feed the chicks. . . The first brood appears about the second week in 
September, and by the middle of November these are cast off and a second 
nest is built. Still there are exceptions. In two cases last season the 
young followed their parents though the female was brooding on the second 
clutch of eggs.” 
139 
