608 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



work 'Abbildungen von Vogelskeletten/ pt. iv., which I hope 

 to be able to publish at the end of this year. 



Yours &c., 



A. B. Meyer. 



Sirs,— In ' The Ibis ' for 1879, p. 376, I gave a notice on 

 two young Cassowaries living in the menagerie at Schon- 

 brunn, which I then believed to belong to Casuarius beccarii, 

 Sclater. These birds, already in black plumage, showed 

 some remnants of brownish colour ; their casques were yet 

 little developed, and the two short appendices of the hardly 

 conspicuous caruncle white washed with blue. In ' The Ibis^ 

 for 1881, p. 401, I published also a note on the egg laid by 

 one of these Cassowaries. 



During the autumn of 1881 I sent two coloured sketches of 

 the birds in question to Count Salvadori ; and he wrote to me 

 saying that he believed they would prove to belong to C. galea- 

 tus. To ascertain the matter I visited Schonbrunn, and again 

 examined the specimens. They had considerably changed in 

 the progress of their development. The larger one (which had 

 laid several eggs) showed a low, little-compressed casque, 

 sloping almost equally before and behind ; the wattles were 

 short, reddish, with white margins ; neither I nor Dr. Lorcnz, 

 who accompanied me, could make out whether the wattles 

 were entirely separate or connected by a common base, be- 

 cause the bird was in restless motion. 



The smaller specimen could not be examined conveniently. 

 It resembled the other; but the wattles were smaller and 

 paler- coloured. 



Some days ago the smaller Cassowary died; and I had 

 therefore an opportunity of making an accurate examination. 

 The result was that I found the casque compressed, and the 

 wattles, now red- coloured, entirely separated. The bird 

 belonged therefore not to C. beccarii, but to C. galeatus, a 

 conclusion which is corroborated by the excellent monograph 

 of the genus Casuarius, which I have received recently by 

 the kindness of Count Salvadori. 



