EMUS 
Next to the ostrich, the emu is the tallest of living birds, attaining an 
average height of five to six feet. It inhabits the inland plains of Australia, 
having been nearly exterminated in the more populous sections of the con¬ 
tinent. The emu is hunted for its oil and for its flesh, which in the young 
bird is sweet and tender. An emu leg provides four or five hungry 
natives with a good meal. 
At a distance the emu’s dull-brown plumage appears more like hair 
than feathers. Its body feathers are double, having two distinct shafts and 
webs. Emus differ from cassowaries in having head feathers; from ostriches 
in being shorter and squatter, and in having three toes instead of two. 
They are the wariest of the flightless birds, and are considered by some 
scientists to be the most primitive type of living bird. 
In the mating season the female emu emits a low booming sound by 
expanding and contracting a large membranous bag connected to her wind¬ 
pipe. She lays six or seven eggs in a cavity in the sand. The eggs, colored 
a beautiful dark bottle-green, are hatched by the male, the incubation 
period lasting eight weeks. 
Emus thrive in captivity and become quite tame. Some specimens have 
lived for more than a quarter of a century. A cruel practice of the Aus¬ 
tralian natives when they capture an emu is to break its small wings. The 
reason for this custom is unknown, as the wings would be of no help to 
the emu in escaping. 
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