FAM. DROMAIIDA= 3 
of trees are used, intermingled with a few of the bird’s own feathers » (Campbell); the shape is 
generally oval, about 1m. 20 by om. 75 in size, and about 5 cm. in thickness ; sometimes no 
nest is formed. The eggs, which are small for the size of the bird, are elliptical in shape ; the 
surface is rough, with granulations of dark green upon a shell of more or less light metallic 
green. The clutch varies from seven to eighteen eggs, but it is possible that when the number 
of eggs is larger than eleven or twelve, the nest was used by two females at least. The male 
performs a very large part of the duties of incubation, and, with the female, attends upon the 
chicks. The young bird in down shows broad longitudinal dark streaks on a light ground. 
The Emu of Australia is the only one that still exists. Those that lived in the neigh- 
bouring islands have now all disappeared, and very little is known about them, One, in parti- 
cular, the dwarf Emu of King Island, is only known by what the French traveller Peron, who 
observed it in the beginning of the nineteenth century, says of it, and also by a few bones 
coming from a recent sandy formation. With our actual knowledge, no special character 
distinguishes clearly this bird from the dwarf Emu of Kangaroo Island, Dromaius peroni, and 
if we may think that it belongs at least to a distinct race localised at King Island, the insufh- 
ciency of our documentation about it does not allow us to be absolutely positive. However, 
the King Island Emu is generally designated under the name of Dromaius minor, which name 
Spencer used in describing the bones mentioned above. It is also under the name of Dromaius 
minor that the King Island Emu figures below, but subject to the above remarks. 
Range. Australia ; formerly adjacent islands, Tasmania, Kangaroo Island, Wing Island. 
Bibliography. Salvadon, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. Vol. 27, pp. 585-589 (1895); Chalmers Mitchell, Proc. 
Zool. Soc. Lond. 1896, p. 140; Beddard, Structure and Classification of Birds, pp. 493-528 
(1898) ; Sharpe, Hand-list Birds, Vol. 1, pp. 2-3 (1899) ; Milne-Edwards & Oustalet, Bull. Mus. 
Hist. Nat. Vol. 5, pp. 206-214 (1899); Pycraft, Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond. Vol. 15, pp. 149-290 
(1900); Chalmers Mitchell, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. Vol. 8, p. 182 (1901); Mathews, Birds 
Australia, Vol. 1, pp. 1-27 (1910); Novit. Zool. Vol. 18, pp. 175-176 (1912); Austr. Avian Rec. 
Vol. 1, p. 107 (1912); Rothschild, Verhandl. V. Intern. Ornith. Kongr. pp. 15t & 160 (1912); 
Dubois, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, Vol. 37. pp. 308-310 (1913); Brasil, Bull. Soc. Linn. Norm. (6); 
Vol. 6, pp. 76-97 (1914). 
The Dromaiid@ consist of a single Genus. 
GENUS DROMAIUS VIEILLOT 
Dromaius Vieillot, Analyse, p. 70 (1816). 
(Also spelt, Dromiceius, Dyomeus, Dromiceus, Drometcus. | 
Synonyms : Tachea Fleming, Philos. of Zool. Vol. 2, p. 257 (1822). 
? Chelarga Billberg, Syn. Faunze Scand. Vol. 1, Pars 2, tab. A (1828). 
Peronista Mathews, Austr. Avian Rec. Vol. 1, p. 107 (1912). 
Type : Dromaius novehollandie novehollandiea (Latham). 
Characters. The same as those of the Family. 
Geographical Distribution, The same as the range of the Family. 
