ISY II. If. SCOTT. 



105 



Museum is indebted to Mr. Willes, of this city, and to the 

 finder of the bone — Mr. E. H. Fenton — for this interesting 

 specimen, which, from its long immersion in the swamp, must 

 be, beyond all doubt, the leg-bone of a Tasmanian Emu. 

 Unfortunately, the bone is broken at its pi'oximal end, the 

 shaft terminating 44 mm. below the femoral articular plat- 

 form. If the amount named be allowed for, it exactly agrees 

 with a second similar-sized bone to be dealt with presently. 

 If allowance is made for the cnemial crest, 75 mm., instead 

 of 40 mm., should be added to the present length. Put into 

 tabular form, we get: — 



Total length of the imperfect bone . . . . 371 mm. 



For restoration to articular platform allow 40 

 mm., or to the top of the cnemial crest, allow 

 another 35 mm. — total . . . . . . . . 75 mm. 



Total for the greatest length of the bone 44G mm. 



This tibial length (446 mm.) gives the Tasmanian Emu 

 exactly the maximum mainland tibial length (as cited by 

 Spencer and Kershaw upon page 21 of their brochure), but. 

 as I shall show presently, the variation incidental to the 

 insular species was more tarso-metatarsal than tibio-tarsal. 

 The point to be noted here is that the bone is beyond all 

 question of Tasmanian origin, since its inclusion into the 

 peaty matrix of the swamp was certainly at a much earlier 

 date than that at which any mainland Emus v,^ere imported 

 into Tasmania, and therefore it stands as the earliest 

 known specimen of a Tasmanian tibio-tarsal shaft. 



I have next to mention the finding of the leg of a Tas- 

 manian Emu, recorded by Ronald Gunn (1852, p. 170), who 

 says: — "A leg of a Tasmanian Emu is now in my possession, 

 "and as far as I can judge from it, as a very imperfect 

 "specimen, there are differences in the arrangement and 

 "size of the scutes, which may justify the separation of the 

 "Tasmanian Emu from that of New Holland." A footnote 

 supplied by the secretary of the Royal Society — Mr. J. 

 Milligan — says: — "Captain Hepburn, of St. Paul's Plains, 

 "possesses a breed of Tasmanian Emus, which he succeeded 

 "in rearing from eggs found many years ago upon the 

 "high, heathy land in his vicinity. Mr. J. Hepburn informs 

 "me that the booming noise is not peculiar to the female, and 

 "that the male bird does, though not frequently, make the 



