474 MR. E. BLYTH ON ROLLTJLUS SUPERCIHOSUS. [MaV 9, 



of the Sydney Museum, giving the description of a Cassowary lately 

 obtained by Mr. G. Randall Johnson at Rockingham Bay, and also 

 alluding to one shot by Mr. Thomas Wall while on the expedition 

 to Cape York with the late Mr. E. B. Kennedy. 



" I have just seen the bird sent to the Museum by Mr. Johnson, 

 and think it is identical with that shot by Mr. Wall in the vicinity 

 of Weymouth Bay in November 1848 ; but the description given of 

 the latter as quoted from Gould's work on 'Australian Birds' is not 

 correct. I am aware that in the few remarks on Wall's bird, which 

 appear in my narrative of Kennedy's expedition, there is an error as 

 to the colour of its helmet or comb, which was black, not red (the 

 redness referred to the wattles), an error which I have before corrected. 

 As I was present when Wall's bird was shot, and helped to eat it, I 

 had a good opportunity of knowing something about it. Instead of 

 going in flocks of five or six together, it is certainly a solitary bird, 

 and would appear to be very scarce, as only two others were seen by 

 our party during the whole journey from Rockingham Bay to my 

 furthest camp at Weymouth Bay, in latitude 12° 25' S. This bird 

 had shorter but larger legs, a heavier body, and shorter neck than 

 the Emu, the colour very dark, its habits, too, being unlike those 

 of the Emu. It appears to confine itself to the gullies in the thick 

 jungles with the Brush-Turkeys and Jungle-fowl, feeding on the 

 various fruits found there, even swallowing the large seeds of Casta- 

 nosperrmiin and Pandaniis. Mr. Wall took every care of the skin 

 he was able to do ; but it was completely destroyed before he died, 

 together with my own specimens at Weymouth Bay. This bird was 

 certainly very large, and furnished our whole party with a better 

 supper and breakfast than we had enjoyed for some months, or than 

 poor Wall was destined to enjoy again (as he and all his companions, 

 with the exception of myself and one other, had died in six weeks 

 after from want of food) ; but there was not one in the party who 

 would not have eaten more if he could have got it, every meal being 

 divided with the greatest nicety, and having been so for a long time. 



"I am, Sir, yours, &c., 



"W. Carron." 



A letter was read, addressed to Professor Owen by Sir Walter 

 Elliot, K.S.I., F.Z.S., and communicated to the Society by Prof. 

 Owen, containing some corrections of notes contributed by Sir Walter 

 Elliot to paper recently contributed by Prof. Ovveu to the Society's 

 • Transactions ' *. 



This letter will be published entire in the Society's ' Transactions.' 



Mr. E. Blyth, C.M.Z.S., exhibited a skin of a Quail shot near 

 Missouree, new to the fauna of Continental India. This species had 

 been described and figured in the ' Knowsley Menagerie,' pt. 2, as 

 Rollulus sujierciliosus ; but Mr. Blyth considered that it belonged 



* " On some Indian Cetacea collected by Walter Elliot, Esq." By Professor 

 Owen, F.R.S., F.Z.S., &c. (Trans. Zool. Soc. vi. p. 17). 



