84 
ALMOST HUMAN 
thieve anything bright. Many a man has lost the locket from his 'watch 
chain by standing too close to the emu’s fence. There is no getting it 
back, either, for the moment the ornament is wrenched olf the chain 
it is swallowed. The bright buttons on men’s uniforms, too, are irresist- 
ible, and many of them are used as a change in diet by these queer 
birds. One emu at the Zoo, however, so badly dislikes fighters that 
even a bright button will not tempt him to be friendly. There is no 
reason, as far as the staff knows, for this aversion, such as is the case 
with the ostrich, who has hated dungarees ever since his fight with a 
man dressed in those overalls. As soon as he sees a uniform he shows 
such unmistakable temper that there is no fear of the owner getting 
near enough to have his uniform rifled of its decorations. There is a 
kangaroo that shows the same invincible hatred of dungarees, and no 
man dare go into his paddock with them on. In both cases it seems to 
be some strange antipathy on the part of an individual animal or bird 
for which there is no accounting. If a soldier gets any way near to 
this particular emu he will do his very best to pick the man — and would 
succeed, too, if the soldier did not keep his distance. Of course he 
may really be a pacifist, and may have conscientious objections to any- 
thing approaching militarism. At any rate it is singular that our typical 
Australian bird should so disgrace himself as to make a parade of his 
lack of orthodox patriotism. 
SENT TO COVENTRY. 
Another interesting thing about the emu is the way it will punish 
a mate by sending it to Coventry. Often one will be turned out of the 
mob and made to feel the sting of his comrades’ displeasure for weeks 
at a time. The offender will not be allowed to drink, eat or sleep 
with the rest ; he is turned out in disgrace, and he must serve his sentence 
of banishment to the very last day of the term. There were at the 
time of writing three male emus in one compound at the Zoo, and one 
of them had been in disgrace for weeks and weeks; the other two 
combining every time he came near them to send him into the outer 
darkness with what sounded very like maledictions. They attacked him 
mercilessly, and no member of the staff knows just what he did to offend. 
All that could be done was to patiently wait until he was forgiven and 
readmitted to the friendship of his mates. 
LIFE HANGS BY A THREAD. 
The emu is the most easily killed creature of any size in the world. 
Its vertebrae is something like a honeycomb, and the slightest touch 
