SUB-FOSSIL REMAINS FROM KING ISLAND. 
DrOMjEUS MINOR. 
The original discovery of an Emu on the islands of Bass Strait 
was made in 1802. In December of that year Admiral Baudin in 
his exploring ships Gdographe , Nu/uralisfe , and Casuarinci visited 
Kangaroo Island, so named by Flinders, though Baudin, unaware 
that he had been forestalled by the English navigator, called it 
ile Deeres. Peron described the existence of large troops of 
Emus there. Three of them were brought back alive to Paris. 
One went to the Jardin des Plantes and two to the Chateau of 
Malmaison. The latter evidently found their way eventually to 
the Museum, as Viellot speaks of several Emus of small size living 
at his time in the Jardin des Plantes. The Museum now 
possesses two specimens*, (1) a skeleton labelled “ Casoar dc la 
Nouvelle Hollande, mort a la Menagerie en Mai 1822, de Pile 
King, par Peron et Lesueur, expedition du Capitaine Baudin,” (2) a 
stuffed specimen labelled u Dromaixs (iter V ., Port Jackson, 
Australie, expedition du Capitaine Baudin,” and bearing this 
further remarkable legend, “Casoar de la Nouvelle llollande, 
C asuarius Australis , Lath., rapporte vivant de Port Jackson par 
l’expedition du Capitaine Baudin, mort enavril 1822 — Le squelette 
est a 1’anatomie.” As Milne Edwards and Oustalet point out, the 
stuffed specimen certainly contains some bones, and as the 
skeleton in the gallery is complete the two specimens must repre- 
sent parts of at least three birds. However this may be, both 
specimens certainly came from Kangaroo Island, and from neither 
King Island nor Port Jackson. The mistake with regard to King 
Island is all the more curious, because during Baudin’s expedition 
the naturalists Leschenault, Badly, Lesueur, and Peron were left 
stranded at Sea Elephant Bay, on the east coast of King Island, 
a strong gale forcing the ships to stand off from the land, fortu- 
nately for them, they came across a few sealers who had settled in 
this out-of-the-way spot. The chief man amongst them, named 
Cowper, entertained the French naturalists in his quarters, and in 
addition to actually seeing two “ Casoars ” hanging up in his larder 
they subjected him to a close questioning, the questions and 
answers being set forth in great detail in a remarkable manuscript 
recently published by Messrs. Milne Edwards and E. Oustalet. f 
Cowper described the bird as possessing when young a greyish 
plumage that became quite black when the bird reached maturity; 
* Notice sur quelques especes d’oiseaux actuellement eteintes qui se trouvent repre- 
sents dans les collections du Museum d’histoire naturelle, par M. A. Milne Edwards 
et M. E. Oustalet. Paris. 1893. Extrait du volume commemorative du centenuire de la 
fondation du Museum d’histoire naturelle, p. 63. For the opportunity of consulting this I 
am indebted to Professor E. C. Stirling. 
+ Note sur l’emeu noir (Dromasus ater V.) de Pile Decrds. Bull, du Museum d’histoire 
naturelle. 1899. p. 206. For the opportunity of referring to this I am indebted to It. 
Etheridge, jun., Esq. 
L9 J 
