40 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



The members of this superfamily are at present confined to the Australian and 

 Indo-Malayan region, but fossil remains have been found in India and also in Europe, 

 if the so-called Macrornis and Megalornis, from the London clay, really belong 

 here. 



The first family, the DROMAIIDJS, which embraces only the emus, represent 

 in the Australian deserts and plains the ostriches of Africa and the Rheas of South 

 America, but are smaller than the former, though larger than the latter, standing, 

 as they do, about five feet high. As their position within the same superfamily as 

 the cassowaries indicates, their affinities are with the latter, from which they are 

 easily distinguished by the absence of the helmet on the top of the head ; neither 

 do they have the spiny rudiments of wing feathers, nor the nail of the inner toe 

 lengthened unusually; the nostrils are placed near the middle of the beak, and 

 not in the anterior half of it, as in the cassowaries. The neck and most of the head 

 are feathered, and the feathers less hair-like. Of anatomical characters may be men- 

 tioned that the clavicles, though reduced and separate, are less rudimentary than 

 m the birds composing the following family, and that the femoro-caudal muscle is 



absent, while present in the cas- 

 sowaries. 



Not more than two species 

 are conceded by the best author- 

 ities, the Dromaius novce- 

 hollandiee, inhabiting eastern 

 Australia, and D. irroratus, 

 from the southern and western 

 parts of that continent, both 

 of a brownish color ; the latter 



FIG. 18. - Pelvis of emu (Dromaius novce-hollandi^" however, with the individual 



feathers of the body distinctly 

 marked with narrow transverse bars of light grayish and brownish black. 



The emu was first described and figured under the name of the New Holland 

 cassowary in Governor Phillip's " Voyage to Botany Bay." According to Mr. Gould, 

 " the old Bush-man," whose account of the Australian birds must be the chief source 

 and foundation of all information concerning the ornithology of that remarkable 

 region, during the earlier days of the colony, the emu was universally dispersed 

 over the whole of the Australian continent. The encroachment of the white man, 

 however, has now caused its almost extirpation in many parts; though good emu 

 coursing, which is said to be excellent, and equalling, if not surpassing, the same sport 

 with the hare in England, may still be had in districts where the settlers have not yet 

 commenced their merciless war against the native animals. It is stated, however, that 

 dogs will seldom attack it, both on account of some peculiar odor, and because of the 

 dangerous injuries it inflicts by striking out with its feet ; to avoid which, the well- 

 trained dogs run up abreast and make a sudden spring at their neck, whereby they are 

 quickly despatched. Mr. Cunningham asserts that but little of the emu is fit for culi- 

 nary use except the hind-quarters, " which are of such dimensions that the shouldering 

 of two hind-legs homewards for a mile distance once proved me as tiresome a task as 

 Lever recollect to have encountered in the colony." 



According to Gould, the only vocal sound the emu has been heard to utter is a low 

 booming or jumping noise. The eggs are six or seven in number, of a beautiful dark- 



