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Panel 4

TO WHAT STRANGE USES

In colonial days native birds were killed for more immediately practical reasons than scientific collection, as Leichhardt's wry entry about a Christmas dinner of suet pudding and stewed cockatoos in his Journal of an Overland Expedition reminds us.

Hunted, eaten, slaughtered for the feather trade, crafts, ornament and fashion, the uses for birds were many. Often claiming that Australian birds were 'songless', collectors and settlers quickly created an actual ‘songlessness’ in settled lands by killing birds and destroying their habitat.

Nicholas ChevalierAppel’s posterCarved Emu Eggs

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