482 MR. G. KREFFT ON A NEW CASSOWARY. [May 9, 



I have seen it in Man, Cebus capucinus, Ateles, Cercopithecus, 

 Mucacus, Horse, Seal (although Meckel denies its existence in the 

 latter animal) ; and it has been noticed by others in the Dog, 

 Cat, Ichneumon, Marmot, Ornithorhynchus, Deer, Porpoise, &c. 

 (for references vide Wood, loc. cit. p. 51). The chief interest of 

 this fasciculus consists in its being the fore-limb equivalent of the 

 pectineus in quadrupeds (or the adductor brevis accordinff to Mr. 

 Wood). 



There were no traces of any other muscles in the arm or forearm. 

 The triceps and forearm muscles present in the Balcsnoptera were 

 here represented only by intersecting threads of fibrous tissue totally 

 devoid of muscularity. The shoulder-joint had a distinct capsular 

 ligament lined by a synovial sac ; the former was not perforated by 

 any of the neighbouring tendons, and, though thicker below than 

 above, yet had no trace of the inferior scapulo-humeral accessory 

 ligament present in Balcenoptera. No other joint in the upper limb 

 presented a synovial membrane, all being referable to the amphi- 

 arthrodial order of synchondroses. Of the other joints in the body, a 

 synovial capsule existed for the stylo-hyoidean articulation with the 

 squamous bone, but I could not find one for the lower jaw. 



I did not notice any undescribed peculiarities in the skeleton 

 worthy of record ; the stylo-hyoid cornu was joined to the body by 

 a round arched ligament of some little length, not like the close 

 union which occurs in Balcpnoptera rostrata ; the latter is repre- 

 sented (I believe, erroneously) as possessing a long intervenient liga- 

 ment, in the article "Cetacea" in Todd's 'Cyclopaedia of Anatomy 

 ^nd Physiology.' 



3. Description of a Ncav Species of Cassowary from Northern 

 Queensland. By Gerard Krefft, F.L.S., C.M.Z.S.^ 

 Curator and Secretary of the Australian Museum, Sydney. 



The existence of a species of Cassowary in the northern part of 

 Australia has been known for many years, from native ornaments in 

 which Cassowary feathers form a part, and from the report of the 

 survivors of Kennedy's expedition, who state that they actually shot 

 one of these birds. Mr. W. S. Wall, late Curator of this Museum, 

 has even gone so far as to give a very brief description of a Cassowary 

 in a defunct Sydney newspaper, published in June 1854. Gould has 

 quoted this description in his ' Handbook on the Birds of Australia,' 

 accepting the name j)roposed by Wall, of Casuarius australis, though 

 Wall's description (?) was founded on nothing more than the remarks 

 of one of Kennedy's men, that they had shot a bird unlike an Emu 

 with wiry feathers and a topknot or helmet. 



The brief account which Wall gives us is as follows : — " The body 

 thickly covered with dark-brown wiry feathers; on the head is a 

 large prominence or helmet of a bright red colour, and to the neck 



