SUB-FOSSIL REMAINS FROM KING ISLAND 
Throughout the whole of Australia there is only one species of 
Emu*. Six living species of Apteryx are recognised on the islands 
of New Zealand, where there also exist the remains of at least 
twenty species of Dinornis and closely allied genera. In Australia 
there is only one species of Cassowary ; on the Papuan Islands to 
the north there are no fewer than ten species, and of these one 
species may be confined to one island, as in the case of the well 
known Ceram Cassowary, or several may occur on the same island 
as in the ease of New Canes 
It is thus apparent that for some reason or another an 
insular environment is associated with considerable variation 
amongst Ratite birds. It would not therefore be a matter of 
surprise, judging by what has taken place in the case of the Ratite 
birds of New Canes and the surrounding islands to the north of 
Australia, if King and Kangaroo Islands and Tasmania each 
possessed its own species of Emu. 
The measurements in the table given above indicate very 
clearly the fact that the King and Kangaroo Island Emus were 
quite ‘distinct from those of the mainland. Of this there can be 
no doubt whatever. There now remains the question of the 
identity or otherwise of the two former. Despite the fact that in 
the case of the femur, tibio-tarsus and tarso-metatarsus our 
collection from King Island includes in each case one or two bones 
equal in length to the corresponding bones in the Paris specimen 
from Kangaroo Island, it is clear that these belong to exceptionally 
large specimens, and that the average size of these bones was con- 
siderably less than the maximum given in the table. ‘The two 
bones from Kangaroo Island also indicate the fact that the species 
of Emu inhabiting the latter was of decidedly less robust build 
than that of King Island. Not only is this so, but the measure- 
ments of the skull and pelvis are quite sufficient to distinguish the 
two species. 
Both the King Island and the Kangaroo Island species were 
distinguished by their dark colour from that of the mainland. 
We have now to deal with the question of the Tasmanian Emu. 
At the present time no Emu is extant in the island, but names such 
as Emu Bay and Emu Plains evidently indicate the fact that when 
the island was first occupied by white men, and probably for many 
years afterwards, Emus did exist. The only examples of the Tas- 
manian Emu of which we can find any record are two skins of 
adult birds presented to the British Museum by Mr. Ronald Gunn, 
and recorded by Gray in his List of Sirds in the British Museum, 
iii., p. 54, 1844, and again by Salvadori in the British Museum 
Catalocue of Birds, xxvii., 1895. 
* D. irroratus of N.W. Australia is doubtfully distinct from D. nove-hollandia. 
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