202 DEGENj New Speciei o) Australian Magpies. 



Emu 



2nd April 



for examining this species as to the length of their bills ; but 

 I should in no way be surprised to find, if it were done, that a 

 considerable percentage would prove to be possessed of bills fully 

 as long as those mentioned and ascribed to the Western forms. 



The endeavour to show the remarkable individual fluctuations, 

 which range from 44 to 57 mm., as I have done on G. tibicen, 

 apparently has borne no fruit, else the advisability of some allow- 

 ance for this before a multiplication of species. 



For purposes of comparison we are indebted to Mr. Milligan 

 for the introduction of a photographic plate which accompanies 

 the description of his new species. Its top space is occupied by 

 the figure of the head of G. longirostris, and the bottom part by 

 that of G. tibicen. The former shows it at a glance to be, as 

 further pointed out by the author in the text, the not quite 

 mature feathered but fully grown male, whose plumage was to 

 shortly have been replaced through the impending moult. It 

 is the abraded and thoroughly worn-out garb acquired during 

 the moult of the previous season. The photograph, moreover, 

 shows it, in an unmistakable manner, to be the dry specimen 

 of a cabinet skin. This is revealed by the flatness of the crown 

 of the head. In itself of no consequence and mattering little ; 

 but as among other things it is intended to show the relative 

 differences and existing proportions in the distribution of the 

 white and black portions between this species and G. tibicen 

 depicted underneath it, the general outlines become much more 

 dissimilar, as would have been the case had two specimens of a 

 uniform condition been selected, instead of an overstuffed (to 

 be detected in the greatly exaggerated orbits) specimen of the 

 latter type. In the first instance — though not wholly, perhaps, 

 but certainly very near the mark — the culmen of G. longirostris 

 would in no wise appear to be so conspicuously straight as it now 

 does by being continued in line over the crown of the head beyond 

 its root, or the converse of it as seen in the artificial raising of 

 the same in G. tibicen. In the same manner the depth of the 

 bill at its base in the latter becomes greater in appearance as the 

 soft parts situated between the lower mandibles are brought into 

 greater prominence by being stuffed out, producing in this way 

 the impression of an angle of a higher degree. But as the sheath 

 covering the beak is subject to a perennial replacement too, a 

 certain amount of atrophy through wear must be ascribed to it 

 as having taken place, and this to some extent would help to 

 produce a loss of the rotundity which is a characteristic feature 

 after the renewal of the rhampotheca, and as seen in the figure 

 of G. tibicen, but absent in the specimen of G. longirostris figured 

 above. 



The thoroughly worn down condition of the plumage of the 

 crown and nape, too, in a great measure would become responsible 

 for the circular-shaped white patch appearing either enlarged, 

 i.e., reaching higher up the head portion, as pointed out, and 

 further figured for G. longirostris ; or reduced as discernible 



