38 NEORNITHES RATITAE CHAP. 



green colour, while the surface is covered with granulations 

 which give it the appearance of shagreen. They are small for 

 the size of the bird, being less than those of the Cassowary. 

 The cock performs the duties of incubation, and it is very doubt- 

 ful whether the hen ever assists him ; the chicks break the shell 

 in about eight weeks. The flesh is moderately good for eating, 

 and the fat below the skin yields a large quantity of oiL 

 The birds are constantly hunted with dogs or shot on account of 

 the damage they do to wire fencing and the grass they devour. 

 Emeus are easily domesticated, and propagate readily in semi- 

 confinement, being perfectly hardy in Britain and elsewhere. 



D. patricius is a fossil species from the Plistocene of Queens- 

 land and New South Wales. D. gracilipes is another extinct 

 Australian form, but Dromornis australis of Queensland may 

 indicate a distinct group of Eatitae. 1 Dromaeus ater, of Kangaroo 

 Island, off the south coast of Australia, is now extinct, though a 

 stuffed skin and a skeleton are in the Paris Museum. 2 



IV. APTERYGES. 



The APTERYGES, or Kiwis, have been recently shown to be much 

 more nearly related to the Dinornithes than to the remaining 

 Eatite forms, and are accordingly placed in close proximity to 

 them in the classification here adopted. Professor T. J. Parker 

 has, moreover, lately formulated a new system excluding the 

 Aepyornitlies, which may commend itself to many persons as a 

 further improvement. 3 In this, the Order Struthiones contains 

 the family Struthionidae, and the Rlieae the Eheidae ; but the 

 third Order, upon which the name Megistanes, Vieillot, is be- 

 stowed, includes two Sub-Orders Casuariformes, comprising the 

 Casuariidae and Dromaeidae, and Apterygiformes, with the Din- 

 ornithidae and Apterygidae. In other words, the original stock 

 is considered to have produced three Eatite branches only, the 

 third of which gives rise to two twigs, each of these separating 

 again into two smaller twigs representing the Families. 



Fam. Apterygidae. These birds are at once distinguished 



1 For an extinct gigantic bird from Callabonna, South Australia, with enormous 

 skull (Genyornis newtoni), see Stirling, Nature, 1. 1894, p. 206 ; Stirling and 

 Zietz, Tr. R. Soc. S. Austr., xx. 1896, pp. 171-211. 



2 Cf. Milne-Edwards and Oustalet, Vol. Centenaire Mus. N. H. Paris, 1893, 

 pp. 62-67. 3 Tr. Zool. Soc. London, xiii. 1895, pp. 425-427. 



