ORDER CASUARIIFORMESTHE EMUSTHE CASSOWARIES. 223 



Struthio camelus, and the South African form, S. australis, have flesh-coloured 

 thighs, whereas the Somali-land ostrich, S. molybdophanes, has black thighs. 

 It is not a little vexatious that no one has yet determined how many species 

 of ostrich really exist at the present day. Their plumes are classified by 

 dealers, and those of the Barbary form are supposed to be different from 

 those of the South African form, but at present no museum contains a series 

 which illustrates the life history, or the 

 number of species existing of these well- 

 known birds. 



The ostriches have only two toes, the 

 first and second being absent. The quills 

 and tail-feathers are well-developed for 

 this class of bird, but no after-shaft is 

 present. The male is larger than the 

 female, and he undertakes the care of 

 bringing up the family after he has 

 hatched out the eggs. He especially looks 

 after the nest at night, and broods over 

 the eggs, though in many tropical countries 

 the latter are covered over with sand, 

 and left to the heat of the sun during 

 the day. The cock-bird has more than 

 one wife, generally three or four, who 

 make common cause in the laying of the 

 eggs, and deposit them in the same nest, 

 sometimes as many as twenty eggs being 

 found together. 



These birds comprise the order Casuariiformes, with two sub-orders, 

 Dromeos (Emus) and Casuarii (Cassowaries). Both are inhabitants of the 

 Australian region, the cassowaries being confined to the 

 Papuan sub-region of the latter. Of the emus, three species The Emus, 

 are known, and it is quite possible that a fourth existed 

 within recent times, as the Tasmanian emu was apparently distinct from the 

 Australian form, but is now quite extinct. The small black emu of Kan- 

 garoo Island is known only from two specimens in the Paris Museum, and 

 is also extinct. Thus we have but the common emu (D. novce hollandice) and 

 the spotted emu (D. irroratus), the former inhabiting Eastern and the 

 latter Western Australia. The birds of this sub-order all have three toes, 

 and are further distinguished from the ostriches by their rudimentary wings 

 and apparent absence of a tail, while the body feathers have an after-shaft, 

 which is as long as the actual plume itself, so that the latter appears as if it 

 were a double feather. 



The habits of the emu can now be studied in parks and public menageries 

 in this country, where they not unfrequently nest. The bird is said by 

 travellers to be good eating. As with the other Struthious Birds, constant 

 persecution is making it rarer year by year, and it has now entirely disap- 

 peared from haunts where it once was quite numerous. The female is smaller 

 than the male, and on the latter devolves the principal part of the duties of 

 incubation. It has a curious note, which Gould has described as follows : 

 " The note of the emu is a low booming or pumping noise, which we know to 

 be produced in the female by means of the expansion and contraction of a 

 large membranous bag, surrounding an oblong opening through the rings of 



Fig. 2. THE OSTRICH 

 (Struthio camelus). 



