THE BIRDS OE AUSTRALIA. 
In Peron’s narrative of his voyage to Australia,* on Plate XXXVI., some 
Emus are drawn by Lesueur, who, hke Peron, was one of the naturahsts attached 
to Baudin’s expedition. This picture represents the “ Casoar de la Nouvelle 
Hollande ” from ITle Deeres (Kangaroo Island). 
On the left of the picture is figured a white-breasted Emu, and on the 
right are two figures of a black-breasted bird, one large, the other small. It 
would appear that Peron considered these were all of the same species, for, 
in his account of the Cassowaries of King Island, he refers to this plate, 
as though the birds from King Island were identical with those from 
Kangaroo Island. We know, from recent research, that they were not, 
D. parvulus from Kangaroo Island being distinct from D. minor from 
King Island. 
Baudin’s expedition captured three living specimens of these Dwarf 
Emus from Kangaroo Island, the history of which has been given under 
D. parvulus. Nothing has been said of the white-breasted Emu figured 
by Lesueur in Peron’s Voyage, and it would seem that the French 
naturalists did not distinguish between the white-breasted and black-breasted 
birds, but even considered them to be identical with the Common Emu 
of the Austrahan Continent (D. novoe-hollandice). Anyone examining the 
figures in Plate XXXVI. of Peron’s work can see that the Emu depicted 
on the left of this plate can hardly be the same as the black-breasted bird 
figured on the right. 
It is evident that at the beginning of the nineteenth century there were 
more examples of these Dwarf Emus living in Europe than the three which 
Baudin brought to France. Latham t gives a figure of the “Van Dieman’s 
Cassowary,” with a reference to Peron’s work. He evidently copies 
Peron’s figure, and says that the bird never grows to the size of the Common 
Emu. He saw “ two specimens ahve in a London Exhibition J which 
appeared to exceed the bulk of a large Bustard, though giving the idea of a 
still bigger bird, owing to the fullness of the plumage ” ; he then gives a full 
description of the male, female and young. He states further that “ the 
birds were very tame, submitting to be domesticated like poultry, and handled 
without resistance, and were different from the Common Emu in general gait, 
the head and neck being for the most part crouched and drawn backward, 
and the breast, of course, generally protruded, so as to lose much of its 
height ; the back is also much rounded, and the hind parts depressed, as in the 
Pintado, and rarely could any part of the joint of the leg be seen from 
beneath the feathers.” 
* Voyage de Decouvertes aux Torres Australes (1816). 
t General History of Birds, VIII., p. 384, PI. CXXXVIII. (1823). 
} Probably Polito’s Menagerie at Exeter Change. 
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