THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 57 
4 
‘a female, and, when opened, was found to contain exactly fifty 
eggs” (p 82). 
‘August, 1790. An excursion into the country had been 
‘taken this month by Captain Tench and some other officers . . 
“They saw a flock of emu’s twelve in number” (p. 131). 
In Vol. IL, which carries on the narrative of events up to 
‘October, 1800, there are three allusions to, and an extra- 
-ordinary coloured portrait of the emu, but the term cassowary 
isnot mentioned. During the visit of Flinders and Bass to the 
Derwent (January, 1799), it is said that “once they heard the 
tread of an emu” (p. 189); and during the visit of Flinders to 
Glass House Bay that “the emu was not seen, although its 
voice had been so often heard as to induce him to suppose that 
bird must be numerous” (p 248). Still more interesting is the 
‘following extract :—“ On board of the Buffalo [which sailed for 
Wngland on 21st October, 1800] were two of the birds 
-denominated by Dampier black-swans, and three of those which 
in New South Wales were styled emus . . . The other 
‘birds [the emus] were given . . . toSirJoseph Banks . . . 
These birds have been pronounced by Sir Joseph Banks, of 
‘whose judgment none can entertain a doubt, to come nearer to 
what is known of the American ostrich than to either the emu 
of India or the ostrich of Africa” (p. 307). The portrait is 
entitled “ The Emu of New South Wales,” and this appellation 
‘appears again in the list of the plates. 
Reviewing the evidence afforded by the important work of 
Collins, it will be seen that the term cassowary is used only 
-once (in the entry for February, 1789, a date much in advance 
of the publication of Latham’s description). Its use may 
‘therefore have been a later interpolation in deference to the 
English authority ; or if the entry was written in its published 
form, a lack of unanimity among his colleagues is indicated. Be - 
‘this as it may, clear evidence is afforded that, by the end of the 
eighteenth century, the name emu had become well established 
‘among the colonists, and had no rival. 
In conclusion, the evidence summarised above shows that 
‘Captain Tench was responsible for the publication of the 
vernacular name of the Australian emu, if not for the choice 
‘thereof; that the possession of a copy of Goldsmith’s 
‘“* Animated Nature” led up to it; and that the earliest use of 
the name is to be found in Tench’s “ Narrative.” It is also 
‘shown that the name was not given ina haphazard way, but 
that it was the outcome of a genuine attempt to name the bird 
correctly, in'so far as the knowledge of zoology of those con- 
‘cerned, and the scanty literature at their disposal enabled them 
to do so. Ifa satisfactory, short, and euphonious aboriginal 
name had offered itself, something which would have hit the 
popular taste as readily as did the name kangaroo, very pro- 
tbably Tench and his colleagues would have ventured to adopt 
