146 HON. W. EOTHSCHILD ON THE GENUS CASUARIUS. 



upper hind-neck black-blue ; lower hind-neck dark blue. Chin, throat, and sides of 

 fore-neck deep bright blue, rest of fore-neck blackish blue. Below the ear-hole and 

 reaching to the gape is a large irregular patch of very pale blue. Upper half of the 

 naked lower sides of neck black, with purplish-pink streaks between the wrinkles, 

 lower half purplish pink with black spots. 



Total length about 1 m. 330 mm., bill from gape 110 mm., tarsus 240 mm., inner 

 claw about 73 to 90 mm. 



Chick. Head and hind-neck bright rufous mingled with black spots. Chin 

 and throat yellowish buff. Fore-neck and sides of neck rufous buff mingled 

 with black. Rest of body creamy buff. Five longitudinal black bands variegated 

 with rufous running along the back, and two black bands down the flanks and 

 thighs. 



Hah. New Britain. 



The adult bird here described was sent me four years ago by Captain Cayley Webster ; 

 but it is impossible to say if the bird was adult then or not, for though the plumage 

 was black, the casque was undeveloped, and the colours were dull. 



The Mooruk is an inhabitant of the island of New Britain (now most unreasonably 

 and unscientifically officially renamed " Neu Pommern "). It was for the first time 

 made known in a letter from Mr. George Bennett, communicated to this Society 

 by Gould, who proposed the name Casuarius bennetti for the new bird, and reproduced 

 a drawing made by Mr. G. F. Angas from the live bird, which was not quite mature. 

 The letter reads as follows : — 



" My dear Gould, I send you an account of a new species of Cassowary recently 

 brought to Sydney by Captain Deolin in the cutter 'Oberon.' It was procured from 

 the natives of New Britain, where it is known by the name of 'Mooruk.' The height 

 of the bird is 3 feet to the top of the back, and 5 feet when standing erect ; its colour 

 is rufous mixed with black on the back and hinder portions of the body, and raven- 

 black about the neck and breast : the loose wavy skin of the neck is beautifully 

 coloured with iridescent tints of bluish-purple, pink, and an occasional shade of green, 

 quite different from the red and purple caruncles of the Casuarius galeatus ; the feet 

 and legs, which are very large and strong, are of a pale ash-colour, and exhibit a 

 remarkable peculiarity in the extreme length of the claw of the inner toe on each 

 foot, it being nearly three times the length which it obtains in the claws of the 

 other toes. This bird also differs from C. galeatus in having a horny plate instead of 

 a helmet-like protuberance on the top of the head, which callous plate has the 

 character of and resembles mother-of-pearl darkened with black-lead. The form 

 of the bill differs considerably from that of the Emu {Dromceus novas-hollandice), 

 being narrower, longer, and more curved, and in having a black and leathery cere 

 at the base, and behind the plate of the head a small tuft of black hair-like 



