CHAPTER IX.

THE EMEU.

Pets for princes.-Orthography of the name.-Confounded with the Cassowary. -Game laws in Australia.-Anticipated extinction of the Emeu.-Operating causes. Self-denial of the aborigines.-Duty of the present Australians to preserve the Emeu.-Ease with which it may be stalked.-Proposed Emeu parks. Little hope for future Emeus.-The refuge of domestication.-Dinornithes, or Wonder Birds.-Their discovery and history.-Adaptation of the various species to their localty in New Zealand.-Their great variety.-Their recent existence.-How congregated in New Zealand.-Professor Owen's conjecture. Any hope that they still survive?-A few glimpses of evidence.-The latest news.-Habits and propagation of the Emeu.-The Emeus at Knowsley. -Follow the seasons of the southern hemisphere.-Injudicious proceedings.Their diet.-Peculiarities of their plumage.

THERE are pet birds suited for all classes and ranks of mankind; there are Larks, Linnets, Canaries, and Finches for the humble artisan, as well as for his superiors; there are Hawks and Falcons for sportsmen ; Jackdaws, Magpies, and Ravens for ostlers and stablekeepers; Parrots and their kind for indoor invalids; Swans and Peacocks for the gentry; Ducks and Geese for the fen-folks; the Stork for the Dutch, the Robin for the English peasant; and, since the Ostrich refuses to breed in captivity, the Emeu is the bird for Peers and for Princes.

It will hardly be supposed that the Emeu is made to appear in this volume from any hope of its possible profitableness in a domestic state. But we may urge, in

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"T is certain brute

the words of Eleazer Albin, that animals were placed amongst us for nobler ends than just to kill and eat; and to a mind athirst for know

CHAP. IX.]

ORTHOGRAPHY.

353

ledge, as all unprejudiced are, an acquaintance with the actions, views, and designs of these creatures, must be a higher gratification than ever they can yield in the field or the dining-room." The English reader will not be amazed, like an Australian native, that other besides marketable animals should ever receive a glance of attention from civilized men. “Our tawny friend Daraga," says Mr. G. Bennet*,." was puzzled to form a conjecture why, with such abundance of cattle, sheep, &c., we wanted Mallangongs, or Duck-billed Watermoles!" I have not introduced the Emeu as an aviary bird from any experience of keeping it on my own grounds. I doubt whether I dare keep a pair, had such ever been bestowed upon me. The sight of such a couple of rare poultry chasing each other round the boundaries of our lawn might cause the neighbours to ask how long it would be before the Commission of Lunacy was issued. But, in spite of this difficulty, a few particulars that have been collected, and others that have been kindly communicated, induce me to devote a few pages to this noble creature.

We

The name of the bird is spelt in two ways: by Bennet and by the first Australian discoverers, Emeu; by Mitchell, Swainson, Sturt, and others, Emu. prefer retaining the elder mode. To English readers the point seems of no importance, and would really be of none, except as fixing in written language the original Indian pronunciation; whether the syllables are to be sounded as E-me-u according to the first, or E-moo as the latest orthography would lead us to conclude. But Emeu is not the native name of the Dromaius

*

Trans. Zool. Soc., London, vol. i. p. 245.

A A

Nova Hollandia; it was first applied to the Horned Cassowary, as may be seen in Albin *, who gives a very good figure: "Two of these birds," he says, were to be seen (1738) at the George Tavern at Charing Cross, to which place I went to draw them. Their food was bread, flesh, fruit, &c., which they swallow very greedily, having no tongue. They were brought by a Dutch ship from Pallampank in East India.” The Australian bird was at first supposed to be the same as the Indian Cassowary, and hence arose a temporary confusion of terms. Thus, Sir Thomas Browne, writing to his son Edward in 1680, says, 66 wee heare of two oestriges wch are brought from Tangier. I sawe one in the latter end of King James his dayes, at Greenwich, when I was a schoolboy. King Charles the first had a cassaware, or emeu, whose fine green channelled egge I haue, and you

haue seen it. I doubt these will not bee showne at Bartholomew fayre, where every one may see them for his money." Dampier was unacquainted with the Australian Emeu. Writing in 1688, he states, "New Holland is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined

whether it is an island or a main continent. Here are a few small land birds, but none bigger than a blackbird, and but few sea-fowls."+

The Emeu is especially interesting in these days, from the rapidly impending destruction which threatens it from the hands of European settlers. The Aborigines would gladly preserve it, but the Englishman steps in, and persists in exterminating the race. Even among the savage natives in the interior of Australia, where, if anywhere, we should expect to find an unlimited licence

* Vol. ii. p. 56.

+ Account of the Philippines.

CHAP. IX.]

APPREHENDED EXTINCTION.

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to kill and eat the first wild creature that came to hand, restrictive game laws are in force; and Captain Sturt tells us that they are universally the same all over the known parts of New South Wales. The old men, he says, have alone the privilege of eating the Emeu, and so submissive are the young men to this regulation, that if, from absolute hunger, or under other pressing circumstances, one of them breaks through it, either during a hunting excursion, or whilst absent from his tribe, he returns under a feeling of conscious guilt, and by his manner betrays it, sitting apart from the men, and confessing his misdemeanor to the chief at the first interrogation, upon which he is obliged to undergo a slight punishment. This evidently is a law of policy and necessity, for if the Emeus were allowed to be indiscriminately slaughtered, they would soon become extinct. Civilized nations, thinks Captain Sturt, may learn a wholesome lesson even from savages, as in this instance of their forbearance. For somewhat similar reasons, perhaps, married people alone are there permitted to eat Ducks.

Now Sir Thomas Mitchell predicts the extinction of the Aborigines of Australia themselves, in consequence of the slaughtering of the Kangaroos, on which they so much depend; and the destinies of these animals and of the Emeu seem to be bound up together. "The Kangaroo," he says, "disappears from the cattle runs, and is also killed by stockmen merely for the sake of the skin; but no mercy is shown to the natives who may help themselves to a bullock or a sheep. Such a state of things must infallibly lead to the extirpation of the aboriginal natives, as in Van Diemen's Land, unless.

A A 2

timely measures are taken for their civilization and protection. I have heard some affecting allusions made by natives to the white men's killing the Kangaroo. At present, almost every stockman has several Kangaroo Dogs; and it would be only an act of justice towards the Aborigines to prohibit white men from killing these creatures, which are as essential to the natives as cattle to the Europeans."

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But if the Kangaroo is fast vanishing, the Emeu is doomed indeed. The same authority, writing in 1838, informs us, Of the Kangaroo and Emeu it may be observed, that any noise may be made in hunting the latter without inconvenience, but that the less made in chasing the Kangaroo the better. The Emeu is disposed to halt and look, being, according to the natives, quite deaf; the eye is proportionally keen; and thus they frequent the open plains, being there most secure from whoever may invade the solitude of the desert. The Kangaroo, on the contrary, bounds onward while any noise continues; whereas, if pursued silently, he is likely to halt and look behind, and thus lose distance. Dogs learn sooner to take Kangaroos than Emeus, although young Dogs get sadly torn in conflicts with the former. But it is one thing for a swift Dog to overtake an Emeu, and another thing to kill, or even seize it. Our Dogs were only now learning to seize Emeus, although they had chased and overtaken many. To attempt to seize them by the side or leg is dangerous, as an Emeu could break a horse's leg with a kick; but if they seize them by the neck, as good Dogs learn to do, the bird is immediately overthrown, and easily killed. The flesh resembles a beef-steak, and has a very agree