TASK LEFT TO MALE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1937, Page 6

TASK LEFT TO MALE

An emu at the, Auckland Zoo .is at present sitting on a batch of eight eggs. Contrary ■:.to., the recognised procedure, in such matters, however, it' is not the hen bird that is performing this-task, but the male, ..states,, the "New.Zealand Herald." This is a peculiarity of emus. -.•■■. Authorities state that the male.emu is the outstanding example among birds of paternal,care and devotion. In the natural state the hen lays h~er eggs in different places.with utter, disregard as to where they might rest, and then simply, abandons them.' The male, a much more conscientious. bird r rolls, the eggs tdgether into; a ■ nest, ruffles his feathers over, them, and settles, down to hatch the chicks. \ The. hatching period is nine weeks. When the young' are.hatched it is he, and not the hen, who finds' their food and keeps theiruwarm at.night.. The devotion of the male bird was exemplified in a remarkable but tragic manner at the Auckland Zoo last year. Throughout the duration of a' severe hailstorm one night a parent,bird continued to protect a solitary chick heedless of the conditions that prevailed. In the morning the older bird was found dead, but the chick was bensath its wing still alive and warm.