The Sparrow and the Emu's Egg

Words:  Unknown (The Perfeser)
Tune:  John Meredith




There was a little sparrow, and he was out of work
So he humped his bluey on his back and he set out for Burke
He walked till he had bunions, then thought he would enquire
And found that he had only got as far as Nevertire.

He was hungry and so weary, he could hardly drag a leg
When suddenly beside the track he spied an emu's egg,
He popped it in his billy can to boil it for his tea,
And by his Waterbury watch, he counted minutes three.

And when the minutes three were up, he thought it time to stop
So he took his little tomahawk and he cut off the top
'Twas a pity that he boiled it, 'twould have been much better fried
For when he stooped to sup it up, he tumbled down inside

And when he fell in to the egg, he to his sorrow found
Three minutes wasn't long enough, and the poor little chap was drowned:
The moral of this story is: if emu eggs you seek
For supper, you should take great care and boil them for a week.


From the Joy Durst Memorial Song Collection, Victorian Folk Music Club, 1980.  Noted as being by The Perfesser, Sydney, about 1920.

The illustration above is a photograph of an emu's egg and a chicken's egg.