226 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
it has been long ago extirpated. The French expedition 
under Baudin found it there in 1803, and brought away three 
living birds, which survived at Paris for several years, and 
a skeleton and stuffed skin are in the museum there. It 
might be worth while now to look for bones on the island. 
I have long suspected that this species was distinct, but 
several people whom I asked about it declare that it was 
not. It was very much smaller than the common Emu, 
and darker in colour.” 
I shall conclude my observations on the Emu with a pretty 
scene I witnessed in Riverina one balmy day in September. 
After a tedious plodding with a bugey and pair through 
flooded lignum country, we emerged on a grassy rise where 
we noticed Emus gamboling—running sideways, kicking, 
etc. Seeing they were hemmed in by water on one side, and 
by a fence on the other side, we put the horses hard to their 
collars, and are soon galloping amongst a splendid flock of 
twenty-eight birds, some being remarkably large and dark. 
At the imminent risk of our flying vehicle colliding with 
tree-stumps and fallen logs, we enjoy a merry spin with the 
fleet-footed birds. How graceful is their high-stepping 
action! We can hear the peculiar rustling noise of the 
feathers caused by the birds in rapid motion. When a bird 
puts on a spurt, or goes at top speed, it carries its body 
together with neck extended at an angle of about 45° 
with the plain. Of course the fine birds soon distance us 
by making “tracks,” amid wreaths of water spray, through 
a flooded shallow, while we wheel and continue our 
own track, 
DROMAIUS IRRORATUS, Bartlett. 
(Spotted Emu.) 
Figure.—Sclater, Trans. Zool. Soc., iv., pl. 76 (1862). 
Previous Descriptions of Eggs.—Campbell, Victorian Naturalist (1888) ; 
North, Cat. Bds. Aust. Mus. (1889), 
Geographical Distribution —Northern Territory (probably), 
West and North-West Australia, interior of South Australia, 
and Victoria (accidental), 
