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Show Emu Perfect Example of "Henpecked" Male Among the Australian emu emancipated emanci-pated females are the rule. Here the lady does the courting, which consists largely of a loud booming. The emu is a very Irregular layer, depositing her big green eggs at intervals of from two days to a week. No nest is built, and it is the duty of the harassed male to follow her movements move-ments and to cover the eggs with bits of straw or grass, so that they may have at least some protection, says Lee S. Crandall in the Mentor. The clutch varies from two to as many as eighteen eggs; just how the male keeps track of them all is still a mystery. mys-tery. When he feels that no more are to follow he scoops a shallow hollow in the ground and gathers into it bis scattered treasures. Then he humbly begins the process of incubation, a task which lasts for eight weeks the longest incubation period known to birds. When the babies emerge he lavishes on them tin attention that no mother could excel. This groat bird, nearly as large as an ostrich, leading a brood of chicks, might serve as a perfect example of motherly solicitude. solici-tude. He guards his children for a year and a half, leaving them only to yield to the persuasive "boom" that again bends his neck to the yoke. While her downtrodden mate is "keeping "keep-ing the home together" the mother emu is roaming the country "booming" "boom-ing" for another mate. |