THE BLACK EMEU. 85 



he saw some time previous to 1822 were remarkable for the 

 looseness of their plumage, which was so long as to conceal the 

 thighs. They carried themselves in true Emeu fashion, with 

 protruding breast and retracted head — a stately mode of pro- 

 gression which may be studied in the Common Emeu by observa- 

 tion at the Zoo. In Latham's day the distinctions between the 

 various ratite birds had not been worked out ; he called D. ater 

 " Van Diemen's Cassowary," but evidently recognized it as a 

 valid species, pointing out that it was always smaller than D. 

 novce-hollandice, which he styled the " New Holland Cassowary." 



Latham says that the two birds he saw were of a tame dis- 

 position, and it is highly probable that the Black Emeu was as 

 capable of being semi-domesticated as the common species, 

 which now breeds in many an English gentleman's park. The 

 three examples brought from Kangaroo Island stood the climate 

 of France well enough ; one of them lived from 1804 to 1822, 

 and when it died was still in splendid condition, as an examina- 

 tion of its stuffed skin will testify. Indeed, these birds might 

 have been easily acclimatized in Europe, and perhaps the 

 founding of a menagerie-bred race would have ensured the per- 

 manent continuance of the species independent of any calamity 

 that might happen to the wild individuals which had been left on 

 their native island. Dis aliter visum. The Black Emeu has 

 been utterly exterminated, and, indeed, has disappeared so com- 

 pletely that it should not be ranked with the " commoner " 

 extinct birds, of which a considerable number of museum speci- 

 mens yet remain — the Great Auk and the Labrador Duck, for 

 instance. It should rather be enrolled in the " almost unique " 

 series of exceedingly rare forms, such as the Black and White 

 Fregilupus Starling of Reunion, or Pallas's Cormorant. 



Bullock and Latham alone, amongst the early naturalists, 

 appear to have certainly recognized the Pigmy Emeu as distinct 

 from the common species. Mr. Bullock will be chiefly remem- 

 bered by naturalists as being one of the few ornithologists who 

 ever had the chance of chasing a British Great Auk, and many 

 will remember how he is related, in 1812, to have pursued the 

 male bird, now in the National Collection, for several hours in a 

 six-oared boat without success. It appears that the Bullock 

 museum contained a specimen of the Common Emeu, and also 



