To The Naturalist This Country Holds Out Many Invitations.
Birds, though not
remarkably numerous, are in great variety, and of the most exquisite beauty
of plumage, among which
Are the cockatoo, lory, and parroquet; but the bird
which principally claims attention is, a species of ostrich, approaching nearer
to the emu of South America than any other we know of. One of them was shot,
at a considerable distance, with a single ball, by a convict employed
for that purpose by the Governor; its weight, when complete, was
seventy pounds, and its length from the end of the toe to the tip of the beak,
seven feet two inches, though there was reason to believe it had not attained
its full growth. On dissection many anatomical singularities were observed:
the gall-bladder was remarkably large, the liver not bigger than that
of a barn-door fowl, and after the strictest search no gizzard could be found;
the legs, which were of a vast length, were covered with thick, strong scales,
plainly indicating the animal to be formed for living amidst deserts;
and the foot differed from an ostrich's by forming a triangle,
instead of being cloven.
Goldsmith, whose account of the emu is the only one I can refer to, says,
"that it is covered from the back and rump with long feathers, which fall
backward, and cover the anus; these feathers are grey on the back, and white
on the belly." The wings are so small as hardly to deserve the name,
and are unfurnished with those beautiful ornaments which adorn the wings
of the ostrich:
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