. Stories about birds of land and water . kangaroo, and he gets very much excited, andhe and his companions set up shout after shout, that echoes far and wide. The emu runs very fast indeed, and the swiftest dogs have great difficultyin overtaking him. When he is overtaken, he stands, like a stag, at bay, andoften kicks out his foot, and so wounds the dogs. But the well-trained dogis taught to spring at the emus neck, and keep out of the way of his foot. But when the hunt has been successful, and the bird has been killed, thebanquet that follows is a very select one. Only a favoured few are al
. Stories about birds of land and water . kangaroo, and he gets very much excited, andhe and his companions set up shout after shout, that echoes far and wide. The emu runs very fast indeed, and the swiftest dogs have great difficultyin overtaking him. When he is overtaken, he stands, like a stag, at bay, andoften kicks out his foot, and so wounds the dogs. But the well-trained dogis taught to spring at the emus neck, and keep out of the way of his foot. But when the hunt has been successful, and the bird has been killed, thebanquet that follows is a very select one. Only a favoured few are allowedto partake, and the young men are not permitted to touch it; if they do, theyare severely punished. The flesh is said by a traveller to be very delicious, and somethingbetween that of a turkey and a sucking-pig. But, at the time he partook ofit, he and his companions were in a state of famine, which might account forhis liking it so well. The English settlers say it is a little like beef, both to look at and to ^TORIES ABOUT taste, and that the flesh of the young ones is very tender and dehcate. Thehinder quarters are the only parts that are eaten, and they are such a weight•X is no easy matter for a man to carry them home on his shoulders. Theeggs are about the size of those of the ostrich, and at the proper season the THE BUSTARD. i95 natives almost live upon them. They are of a beautiful dark green colour,with a rough surface like the coarse rind of an orange, and are laid in a holelike those of the ostrich. The emus wander about in flocks, and are not very shy. A party oftravellers once met with a flock. There were as many as thirty-nine came to stare at the travellers horses, and were so much interestedin looking at them that they did not seem to notice the riders. The emu has a hollow drumming sort of note. THE BUSTARD. There is a bird, now very rarely seen in England, that belongs to the samefamily as the ostrich and the emu. It may be said t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirdsjuvenileliterat
