DWARF EMU. 5 



Genus PERONISTA. 



Peronista Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. I., pt. 5, p. 107, Dec. 24th, 1912. Type (by 

 original designation) : Dromaius peroni Rothschild. 



Dwarf Emus with small bills, stout legs, and long toes. This extinct form, 

 apparently confined to Kangaroo Island, had a shorter bill, and shorter legs, though 

 apparently the toes were almost the same length, therefore comparatively much 

 longer. The tarsus is just three times as long as bill and less than twice as long 

 as middle toe and claw, whereas in Dromiceius the tarsus is nearly four times as 

 long as the culmen and much more than twice as long as the middle toe and claw. 

 In addition, the feathering is said to differ in nature, so that the above name should 

 be used in order to keep in view the peculiarities present, that they may be 

 investigated. 



Coloration uniform. 



2. Peronista peroni. DWARF EMU. 



Mathews, Vol. I., pt. 1, pis. 3 and 4 ? Oct. 31st, 1910. 



Dromaius peroni Rothschild, Extinct Birds, p. 235, pi. 40, 1907 : Kangaroo Island. 

 Dromaius parvulus Mathews, Birds Austr., Vol. I., pt. 1, p. 19, Oct. 31st, 1910 ; ex Gould, 

 Penny Cyclop., Vol. XXIII., p. 145, 1842. Nom. nud. : Kangaroo Island. 

 ? Dromiceius spenceri Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 176, Jan. 31st, 1912 [King 

 Island = ] Kangaroo Island. 



DISTRIBUTION. Kangaroo Island, off South Australia. (Extinct. Only one skin known.) 



Adult. The top of the head is covered with a crest of recurved feathers, which is 

 continued on to the occiput and nape, in a band of similar but slightly longer feathers. 

 These feathers differ in their woolly nature and their black colour from the brownish 

 hair-like feathers, and the rather short curly feathers which cover the abdomen and 

 nape of the Australian Emu. The cheeks are not entirely bare, and from the base of 

 the neck springs a kind of moustache, which turns backwards and meets the hair-like 

 feathers covering the ears, while in the Australian Emu a naked band extends across 

 the lores and cheeks to the temples, where it begins to blend with another naked zone 

 surrounding the ear and extending along the sides and the front of the neck. On the 

 contrary, in the Emu brought home by the Baudin Expedition, the front of the neck 

 is almost entirely covered with hair-like, blackish feathers, and the naked zones are 

 narrower and turn towards the side of the nape. All the lower part of the neck is 

 covered with a very thick " ruff " of blackish, woolly feathers, very different from 

 those which cover the same part of the Australian Emu. The feathers of the body, 

 instead of being as in the latter, fulvous and marked with black at the tip and along 

 the shaft, are mostly, in the Emu from Kangaroo Island, of a fulvous-brown at the 

 base, and of a very dark brown from the middle to the tip ; finally, the feathers of 

 the thighs, instead of being of a yellowish-grey colour spotted with brown, are a 

 mixture of fulvous and blackish -brown. The beak and feet are very dark brown, 

 and the naked parts seem to have been blue as in the Common Emu. Total length 

 142 cm., height to back 65 cm. ; bill from gape 75 mm., tarsus 230, middle toe 

 and claw 130. 



Nest and Eggs. Unknown. 



Distribution and forms. Apparently confined to Kangaroo Island. Many 

 bones have been discovered of a small Emu on King Island, which have been named 

 Dromaius minor Spencer, but it is undetermined at present as to the relationship of 

 these bones. 



