of the Extinct Dromseus aler^ S 



and I willingly made an exception to our rules in his 

 favour, as he is engaged on a nearly allied group, while I 

 was also glad to give an opportunity of inspecting so rare a 

 relic to my colleagues of the 13.0.U., it being more accessible 

 to them at Tring than in Florence. I sent a note to ' Nature ' 

 on the important discovery * and also made a communication 

 on the same subject to the International Ornithological 

 Congress at Paris in June last. My communication to 

 ' Nature ' called forth a short, but highly interesting, note 

 from my learned friend Professor Alfred Newton t ; from 

 wliich we learn that so long ago as 1812 a ^'Lesser" and a 

 " Great Emea " were recognized as distinct in Bullock's 

 Museum, and that a specimen of each was preserved in that 

 remarkable collection. Further that when Bullock's Museum 

 was dispersed under the auctioneer's hammer in May 1819 

 the two birds were bought by the Linnean Society of London 

 for £7 \0s. and £\Q \0s. respectively. I quite agree 

 with Professor Newton that the " Lesser' Emea " was most 

 probably a specimen of the unfortunate D. ater, and I am 

 surprised that both specimens should have so entirely 

 disappeared that Prof. Newton has in vain endeavoured to 

 trace the smaller. If found and identified according to our 

 suppositions, it would stand as the fourth known specimen of 

 D. ater. Professor Newton concludes by saying that it may 

 still exist unrecognised ; and this lack of recognition of a 

 most distinct species for nearly a century is the corner-stone 

 and basis of the sad history of the Lesser Emeu. I may 

 here remark that even Professor Newton, in whom I hail 

 the most erudite of living ornithologists and the highest 

 authority on lately extinct birds, had up to a recent date not 

 recognised this species. In his excellent ' Dictionary of 

 Birds ^ (part i. p. 214: London, 1893) he gives us sad 

 news regarding the imminent extermination of the larger 

 Emeu, and tells us how it was totally destroyed in Tasmania 

 and is said to have once existed on the islands of Bass 

 Straits; but he makes no mention of D. ater, and gives 



* 'Nature,' vol. Ixii. p. 102 (London, May 31, 1900). 

 t Tom. cit. p. 151 (London, June 14, 1900). 



