HON. W. ROTHSCHILD ON THE GENUS CASUARIUS, 117 
1881. (?) Casuarius galeatus (non Bonn.!) Scl., Zool. Voy. ‘ Challenger, Birds, p. 64 (young, 
bought in Ternate—scem to be young of C. c. beccarii from the Aru Islands ; cf. Cat. 
B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 597). 
1884. (?) Casuarius sp. A. B. Meyer, Zeitschr. ges. Orn. i. p. 296 (egg from Aru—as there are, 
however, several Cassowaries inhabiting the Aru Islands, there is no certainty whatever 
about an egg without history !). 
Adult. Plumage black; casque very high, broad and massive, dark brown ; bill long 
and not pointed. Head and occiput pale greenish blue. Upper part of hind-neck 
deeper blue, followed by a space of mixed blue and red, producing a somewhat livid 
pale purple effect. Lower part of hind-neck scarlet. Chin, throat, and fore-neck 
dark blue. Wattles large, broad, and very conspicuously joined at base, of a deep 
fleshy-red colour, which colour runs up in a narrow line nearly to below the ear. 
Naked lower sides of neck mixed red and blue. A very large bird, but I have not 
been able to measure a fully adult dead example. 
Young (three-fourths grown). Fore-neck indigo-blue, head and occiput pale blue ; 
hind-neck orange-yellow, with a purple patch between blue and orange. Naked lower 
sides of neck, anterior half dull blue, posterior half orange-yellow. Plumage brown. 
Young (about full-grown). Same as adult, only colours less bright and plumage 
brown. 
Hab. Vokan, Aru Islands. 
Dr. Sclater (P. Z. 8. 1875, p. 87) first recognized the Aru Cassowary as a distinct 
species, and gave a woodcut, showing a side view of the head and the wattles trom in 
front, accompanied by the following diagnosis :— 
* Casuarius similis C. australi et crista part modo elevata : sed caruncula cervicis una 
media, ad apicem divisa. 
* Hab. Wokan, inss. Aroensium (Beccar). 
“ Mus. civit. Genoensis.” . 
In the same volume our author also mentions a Cassowary from the south 
coast of New Guinea, of which he believes that it ‘* probably is of the same species 
as that of the Aroo Islands,” namely C. deccarii. This specimen was afterwards 
described as @. sclateri, but later on reunited with C. beccarii, and so it has remained 
also in the ‘Catalogue of Birds. However, I am fully convinced that the form from 
Southern New Guinea can be separated from that from the Aru Islands, where it 
inhabits, so far as we know, only the northern island of the Vokan group. 
I am not able to give descriptions of well authenticated eggs of Beccari’s Cassowary, 
but there is an enormous egg in the British Museum from the Aru Islands, which is 
named C. bicarunculatus, which, however, from its large size | am more inclined to 
believe is that of either C. ¢. beccarii or C. ¢. violicollis. It measures 140 : 98 mm. 
Its granulations are low. 
Schalow (J. c.) describes an egg brought from the Aru Islands by C. Ribbe, measuring 
VoL. Xv.—Part v. No, 2.—December, 1900. T 
