Data 
No. 
675 
678 
679 
No. in 
A.J. 
Campbell's No. of 
Eggs. 
Book. 
762 
765 
3 
THE JACKSONIAN OOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 
EMU, 
Dyromeus nove hollandig, Latham. 
Three eggs, taken near Cunnamulla, South-western Queensland, during season 1896, by S. Robinson. 
Specimen A. measures = 5°44 x 3°63. 
SPOTTED EMU, 
Dyromeus irroratus, Bartlett. 
Two eggs, taken on the north coast of Western Australia during season 1898. I received them 
from Dudley Le Souéf, of the Zoological Gardens, Melbourne. They are darker, and the granulations 
smaller and more closely set together, than in those of the common Emu. Specimen A. measures = 
5°01 X 3°36. Specimen B. measures = 5‘or x 3°48. This Spotted Emu is confined to the west 
and north-west of Australia, and the interior portions of South Australia. 
EMU, 
Dromeus nove hollandie, Latham. 
One egg, a white specimen, which was found ina nest with others of the normal colouring. It 
was not taken from the the oviduct of the bird as some might suppose. The man who found it has 
taken them in nests on several occasions. The shell is rough and granulated, while beneath the white 
surface layer there is one of blue, and under that white again. It was found by Jos. George, during 
season 1900, near Mount Harris, Macquarie River, N.S.W., and measures = 5°23 x 344. The 
Zoological Society has lately added to its collection at Moore Park, Sydney, a bird which is indeed a 
vaya avis. This interesting zoological curiosity is a White Emu, and strange to say it was found at 
Cobar, N.S.W., not far from Mount Harris, from which place the white egg under notice was taken. 
Though instances of albinos occur with more or less frequency in numbers of species of animal life, 
they are of great rarity among Emus. 
CASSOWARY, 
Casuarius australis, Wall. 
One egg, taken from a nest in the scrubs near Cairns, North Queensland, by Archie Craig, on the 
rgth of August, 1891, during a survey expedition. This bird, which is confined to the coastal scrubs 
of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, has now become very scarce, and its eggs are seldom met 
with. At one time they were very plentiful, and formed a good food supply for the aborigines. This 
rare specimen measures = 5°25 x 3°58, and is of a beautiful light pea-green colour, being quite 
different to those of the Emu. One well known Australian oologist, viz., Dudley Le Souéf, who had 
been trying to obtain one of these eggs for many years, only succeeded in 1898. During his visit to 
England that year, to attend the Zoological Congress at Cambridge, he was invited by the Hon. 
Walter Rothschild to inspect his grounds and museum at Tring, the Jatter being the largest private 
institution of its kind in the world. Among the many birds alive there, and breeding in captivity, were 
a pair of Australian Cassowaries, the hen bird of which had been sitting on some eggs for a consider 
able time, but they were evidently unfertilized. He was surprised, however, when the honourable 
gentleman presented him with these rare specimens for his collection at Melbourne, in far off Australia. 
He had actually to go to London to collect the eggs of the Queensland Cassowary. 
BENNETT'S CASSOWARY OR MOORUK, 
Casuarius Bennetti, Gould. 
(See Gould's ‘* Handbook to the Birds of Australia,"’ Vol. ii, page 561, spm. 18.) 
Although this is not an Australian bird, I have decided to keep this rare egg in the collection, 
firstly, because it belongs to a Cassowary which is very rapidly becoming extinct, and, secondly, on 
account of it inhabiting New Britain, north of Queensland. Probably the bird existed in the Cape 
York Peninsula of Queensland, before New Guinea and New Britain were cut one from the other, and 
separated by water from Australia. That New Guinea and Australia were at one time united is 
160 
