Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/232

Rh to lift a load off the mind of the dog, who had been living for some time in a state of preternatural self-restraint, and even the whole household owned to a feeling of relief.

The kangaroo is one of the supporters of the arms of Australia, his fellow-helper on the opposite side of the shield being an emu, light-heeled creatures both of them, to which the motto "Advance Australia" seems thoroughly suitable.

The emu is a bird very easily tamed, but we would not enrol one of the race amongst our favourites, on account of the rooted idea prevalent amongst these birds that everything which they can see about a house is an article of provender. Back-combs, tobacco-pipes, two-inch nails, screws, and screw-drivers are swallowed by him between his regular meals as light restoratives, which sort of fillip his constitution appears to require so often that he is soon held responsible for all disappearances whatsoever upon the premises, and thus becomes a far worse domestic scourge than any landlady's cat that ever was fabled. Nevertheless he fattens on the diet, and emu grease is held in great esteem by both colonists and natives as a cure for bruises and rheumatism. The flesh seems to be generally considered a sort of cross between bird and beast, as I have heard it compared to beef, pork, and goose.

The emu's eggs and feathers bear no resemblance to those of the ostrich, the eggs being coloured of a deep green with a beautiful roughened surface, and the feathers (of which a singular peculiarity is that two plumes spring from each quill) are crisp and curly, so that when they are worn upon the head as an ornament by the natives, and mingle with the natural hair, the effect is perplexing at