SUB -FOSSIL REMAINS FROM KING ISLAND 
In 1804, the Hev. R. Knopwood wrote a diary of his visit to 
Tasmania when H.M. ship Calcutta sailed from Port Phillip to the 
Derwent River in -Tasmania.* * * § On Wednesday, 7th March, he has 
the following record in his diary — u We see Kangaroos, Emews, 
Pigeons, and Parrotts again, on Monday, 26th March, he says — 
They caught six young Emews, about the size of a turkey, and 
shot the old mother and, on 9th October, he records the capture 
by his dogs of an “ Emew 60 lbs. weight. ”f 
Bischoff, | writing in 1832, and quoting from “ An Account of 
Van Diemen’s Land,” published by Widowson, in 1829, says — 
u I he birds that may be called game are very numerous, with 
the exception of the Emu or Native Ostrich, they very much 
resemble the latter bird, and are very nearly as large.” In the 
“ ^ an Diemen’s Laud Anniversary and Hobart Town Almanac,” 
for the year 1831, the “ Emu or Cassowary Rhea Novae-Hollan- 
diae,” is included in “ A glossary of the most common natural 
production of Van Diemen’s Land,” so that evidentlv the bird was 
well known at this early date. 
The Emu is known to have existed in large numbers in 
Tasmania up to at least the year 1840. Col. W. V. Legge,§ the 
distinguished ornithologist of Tasmania, states that during the 
“forties” the birds inhabited and bred regularly in a locality 
known as Kearney’s Bogs, about 12 miles south of Avoca, 
amongst the ranges of the east coast. Lie states that one of the 
shepherds “used not unfrequently to bring eggs to the house.” 
Mr. D. Le Souef, in his notes on the extinct Tasmanian Emu,|| 
mentions that Mr. Ransom, of Killymoou, in the Fingal district, 
remembers Captain Hepburn, of Roy’s Hill, finding an Emu’s nest 
with eight or nine eggs. A little later these were hatched under 
a turkey hen. From these others were bred, and a pair of them 
were given to the late Baron von Steiglitz, of Killy moon, one of 
which survived until 1873, when it was drowned while trying to 
cross a flooded river. With its death, the Tasmanian Emu. Mr. 
Ransom believed, became extinct. 
Gould, in his “ Birds of Australia,” published in 1848, states 
that Emus were then almost extirpated in Tasmania ; a few still 
ranging over the western part. 
* We are indebted to Mr. J J. Fletcher for much valuable assistance in regard to the 
early literature dealing with the Emu and 1'hascolomys. 
t “ Journal of the Rev. Robert Knopwood, A.M.,” in “ Historical Records of Port 
Phillip,” edited by John J. Shillinglaw, p. 65. 
+ Sketch of the History of Van Dieman’s Land, &e. James Bisehofi, 1832. 
§ “ Emu,” iii., p. 239, 1904. 
|| “ Emu,” vi., 1907, p. 116. 
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