300 Zoological Society : — 



&c. ; their extinction being aided by their large size rendering them 

 conspicuous objects, and by the circumstance of their being denizens 

 of very hmited areas, of small groups of islands, such as Mauritius, 

 Madagascar, Norfolk and Philip Islands, &c. The great group of 

 extinct struthious birds with which Owen and the younger Mantell 

 have made us so well acquainted, is one which all ornithologists 

 must regard with especial interest, and this interest will I doubt not 

 be greatly enhanced when I state that I have undoubted evidence 

 that a species pertaining to it, and hitherto unknown to us, is still 

 living on our globe. These few prefatory remarks are given before 

 introducing to the notice of the Society a most interesting commu- 

 nication which I have just received from George Bennett, Esq., of 

 Sydney, respecting a new species of Cassowary lately discovered in 

 the Island of New Britain, an example of which, apparently fully 

 adult, is either now living at Sydney, or en route to Europe : that 

 it may soon arrive, or if it should unfortunately die, its skin may be 

 duly preserved and sent to us, is my anxious hope. I am sure I 

 need not expatiate upon the warm interest which our corresponding 

 member, Br. Bennett, has always manifested for the welfare of this 

 Society, nor upon the value of the varied contributions he has made 

 to natural science ; it cannot fail to afford pleasure to us all to find, 

 as will be seen, that this interest on his part is still undiminished. 

 I think, therefore, that it will only be a just tribute of respect if we 

 name the bird, of whose existence he has been the first to make us ac- 

 quainted, Casuarius Bennetti. 



Of this particular section of the Struthionidce, then, there are the 

 C. galeatus, a native of New Guinea, the C. australis inhabiting 

 the Cape York district of Australia, and the C. Bennetti^ whose do- 

 micile is the Island of New Britain. 



The following are the details respecting this new species with 

 which Mr. Bennett has favoured me : — 



" Sydney, Sept. 10, 1857. 

 " My dear Gould, 

 " I send you an account of a new species of Cassowary recently 

 brought to Sydney by Captain Devlin in the cutter * Oberon ; ' it 

 was procured from the natives of New Britain, an island in the South 

 Pacific Ocean near to New Guinea, where it is known by the name 

 of * Mooruk.'' The height of the bird is 3 feet to the top of the 

 back, and 5 feet when standing erect ; its colour is rufous mixed with 

 black on the back and hinder portions of the body, and raven-black 

 about the neck and breast ; the loose wavy skin of the neck is beau- 

 tifully coloured with iridescent tints of bluish-purple, pink, and an 

 occasional shade of green, quite different from the red and purple ca- 

 runcles of the Casuarius galeatus ; the feet and legs, which are very 

 large and strong, are of a pale ash-colour, and exhibit a remarkable 

 peculiarity in the extreme length of the claw of the inner toe on each 

 foot, it being nearly three times the length which it obtains in the 

 claws of the other toes ; this bird also differs from the C. galeatus 

 in having a horny plate instead of a helmet-like protuberance on the 



