strong, and is hunted by the natives much in the same manner as the kangaroo is hunted. In nearly all parts of Victoria he is speared, nets or yards not being used as a rule.
Mr. Giles mentions finding in the interior of Australia yards erected by the natives for yarding emus and wallabies, and in one place a yard was discovered near a water-hole.[1]
In the Cooper's Creek district, when food is scarce, and the weather is very hot, the natives follow the emu until he is tired, and capture him.
The emu is not easily captured. I have seen a large kangaroo-dog knocked over two or three times by a stroke from the leg of an emu. This was in ascending a range, when the dog was able to overtake the emu; in going down hill the bird extended his short wings and outpaced the dog. In former times, flocks of emus, forty or fifty together, might be seen feeding on the plains. The weight of an emu is about 130 lbs. The natives roast these birds in the ashes of their fires.
Turkey.
The turkey (Otis Australasiensis) — Brea-ell (Yarra), Korn-jinah (Gippsland), Parim-barim (Western district)—is a shy bird, but the natives are cunning in taking him.
FIG. 18.
In the Western district they make an instrument long and flexible, like a fishing-rod, and attach to the end of the thinner part the skin and feathers of a small bird, or a dead butterfly, and a running noose.—(Fig. 18.)
When the hunter sees a turkey, he slowly approaches the bird, holding in front a bush to hide his person, and swinging aloft the decoy with a peculiar motion characteristic of the bird or insect. The turkey's attention is at once arrested and wholly taken up with the movements of the decoy. He stares at it stupidly, turns round and stares again, but though it approaches, he does not move far. He continues to stare until the black gets near enough to slip the noose over his head and secure him.[2]
The weight of a full-grown turkey is about thirty pounds. It feeds on grass, beetles, and great quantities of grubs or larvæ of insects.
The bird is always roasted by the natives, either in an oven or on the embers of the fire.
- ↑ Central Australia, by Ernest Giles, 1875, pp. 43 and 71.
- ↑ When I was travelling over the plains of the Western district on one occasion, I had an opportunity of putting to the test this strange habit of the wild turkey. We saw several with their young feeding on a wide, open, grassy plain, and selecting one old bird for experiment, we drove round him in our carriage, gradually decreasing the distance, the bird turning round and staring stupidly all the while at the vehicle, until the driver was almost within reach of him with his whip. We could have secured him if we had had a noose.
