Vol. XIV, 

 1914 



] Brasil, The Emu of King Island. 8q 



other large islands in Bass Strait, notably Kent Group, sand drifts some- 

 times expose remains of the Tasmanian wombat, now extinct on all islands 

 but Tasmania itself, but this is the only occasion on which the Emu has 

 been associated with them in the same sands forming the land surface of 

 to-day. It is significant that the specimens show no ditference from the 

 corresponding bones of the mainland Emu, from which, then, the Tasmanian 

 variety, extinct only since the white man's advent, could not have essentially 

 differed" (p. 113). 



As a consequence, the Emu whose bones had just been unearthed 

 was at first referred to the continental species, Dromaius novcB- 

 hollandicB. Its much smaller dimensions are, however, sufficient 

 to show how different it is, and Spencer distinguishes it under 

 the name of D. minor, of which D. bassii, Legge,* is the exact 

 synonym. On the other hand, when comparison in relation to 

 their length is made with the corresponding bones in Dromaius 

 peroni, the bones of the lower hmb of D. minor show very near 

 proportions, and it is not possible to make any deductions from 

 these measurements, taken on a single specimen, as far as D. 

 minor is concerned, although this is done on the relative size of 

 this bird, as is shown in the following table : — 



Thus it is not necessarily true that D. minor should have been 

 smaller than D. peroni ; and, on the other hand, if the leg of the 

 Paris specimen be proportionally a little longer, that of the 

 Florence specimen is, on the contrary, slightly shorter. There- 

 fore, as is shown by this example, it is not in their dimensions that 

 a differential characteristic feature is hkely to be found between 

 the Emus from the two islands, supposing there be any. A very 

 remarkable and ingenious interpretation of the Emu of King 

 Island has been given by Mathews,t and it is precisely this inter- 

 pretation which is the cause of this article. 



All the arguments in favour of his thesis were borrowed by 

 Mathews from the specimens represented in Plate XXXVI. of 

 the " Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres Australes " — the plate 

 executed from drawings by Lesueur, one of the members of the 

 expedition, to which he was attached as a painter of natural 

 history. The explanation of this plate is as follows, and it is 

 well to reproduce it entirely : — 



New Holland: Decrcs Island, 



Cassowary of New Holland {Casuarius novcE-hollandice, Lath.) — i, male 

 cassowary ; 2, female cassowary ; 3, young cassowary, about five weeks old. 

 The two brids marked with longitudinal stripes are 20 or 25 days old. 



Moreover, it is shown that the specimens are drawn to the scale 

 of one-tenth of the natural size. Let us add that Decres Island 



* Emu, p. 119 (1907). 



f G. M. Mathews, " The Birds of Australia," i., pp. 23-26, pi. 4, 1910. 



