6 Dr. H. II. Giglioli on a Specimen 



a note criticiziiiji; Latham's distinction of a '' Van. Diemen's 

 Cassowary,'" which, from what little wc know about it, may 

 possibly have been specifically identical with the l)ird Pcron 

 found so abundant ou Kangaroo Island. 



But returning to the Florence specimen of Druuueus aler, 

 my first care was to try to ascertain how it had come to this 

 Museum. Unfortunately our old catalogues were very badly 

 kept, and although each addition was duly numbered and 

 entered, rarely indeed was any note made of its origin. 

 I easily found out that the skeleton of D. aler was first 

 catalogued in 1833 as " Scheletro del Casoario mas. della 

 Niiova Olanda," as no. 3623 in the ' Appeudice ai Cataloghi 

 di Anatomia Zoologia e Botanica/ vol. ii. p. 37; then as 

 " Schelelro di Casoario," no. 467, it was entered in the first 

 'Catalogo dei Mammiferi^ in 1839; and lastly as no. 1673 

 it got into the ' Catalogo degli Uccelli,' 13th March, 1843. 

 This was not much, and I was pondering over the matter and 

 contemplating the skeleton, which had indeed a centenarian 

 aspect, when I noticed for the first time something written on 

 one of the leg-bones. Cleaning the spot with a brush, I found 

 neatly written, in that clear round hand so common in the 

 earlier years of the 19th century, " Casoar mdle'^ ; a further 

 application of the brush brought to light a similar inscription 

 on almost every bone, and made it clear that the skeleton came 

 from France. I finally found out that, besides the well- 

 known fact that the Florence Museum was for a while, 

 shortly after Peron's return, a de[)endency of the French 

 Imperial Household, an exchange of specimens had taken 

 place during the latter days of Cuvier, between 1825-30, 

 between the Paris and Florence Museums, though no list of 

 those specimens has been found. On due consideration, 

 however, I have very little hesitation in identifying the 

 Florence skeleton as the tliird specimen of D. aler brought 

 home by Peron in 1804, which has hitherto been unac- 

 counted for. 



This precious skeleton is mounted (see fig. 1, p. 7), and, as 

 I have already remarked, has been badly kept, exposed to dust, 

 and has a soiled and ancient aspect. The following portions 



