Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/182

172 EMEU has been very commonly adopted by writers, to the exclusion of the older specific appellation. It seems to be peculiar to the island of Ceram, and was made known to naturalists, as we learn from Clusius, in 1597, by the first Dutch ex pedition to the East Indies, when an example was brought from Banda, whither it had doubtless been conveyed from its native island. It was said to have been called by the inhabitants " Emeu," or " Ema," but this name they must have had from the earlier Portuguese navigators. 1 Since that time examples have been continually imported into Europe, so that it has become one of the best-known members of the subclass Ratitce, and a description of it seems hardly necessary. For a long time its glossy, but coarse and hair-like, black plumage, its lofty helmet, the gaudily-coloured caruncles of its neck, and the four or five barbless quills which represent its wing-feathers, made it appear unique among birds. But in 1857 Dr George Bennett certified the existence of a second and perfectly distinct species of Cassowary, an inhabitant of New Britain, where it was known to the natives us the Mooruk. and in them from its large size and lofty helmet is the G. australis, from the northern parts of Australia. Its existence indeed had been ascertained, by the late Mr T. S. Wall, in 1854, but the specimen obtained by that unfortunate explorer was lost, and it was not until 1867 that an example was submitted to competent naturalists. Not much seems to be known of the habits of any of the Cassowaries in a state of nature. Though the old species occurs rather plentifully over the whole of the interior of Ceram, Mr Wallace was unable to obtain or even to see an example. They all appear to bear captivity well, and the hens in confinement frequently lay their dark green and rough-shelled eggs, which, according to the custom of the Ratitce, are incubated by the cocks. The nestling plumage is mottled (Proc. Zoul. Soc. 1863, pi. xlii.), and when about half-grown they are clothed in dishevelled feathers of a deep tawny colour. Of the Emeus (as the word is now restricted) the best- known is the Casuarius novce-lioUandice of Latham, made by Vieillot the type of his genus Dromoeus* whence the FIG. 1. Ceram Cassowary. " his honour it was named by Mr Gould O. benndti. Several examples were soon after received in this country, and these confirmed the view of it already taken. Of late years a con siderable number of other species of the genus have been described (see BIRDS, vol. iii. p. 740, note) from various localities in the same Subregion. 3 Conspicuous among 1 It is known that the Portuguese preceded the Dutch in their voyages to the East, and it is almost certain that the latter were assisted by pilots of the former nation, whose names for places and various natural objects would be imparted to their employers (see DODO, vol. vii. p. 322). 2 The figures are taken, by permission, from Messrs Mosenthal and Harting s Ostriches and Ostrich Farming, Thibner & Co., 1877. 3 The enterprise of travelling naturalists in New Guinea and its adjacent islands has recently been so great that the list given in the passage above referred to is already out of date, and it seems at present hardly possible to place the exact state of our knowledge of the species of Casuariiis before the reader. Several of them have been described from immature examples living in menageries, which FIQ. 2. Emeu. name of the family (Dromceidce) is taken. This bird immediately after the colonization of New South Wales (in 1788) was found to inhabit the south-eastern portion of Australia, where, according to Hunter (Hist. Journ., &c., pp. 409, 413), the natives call it Maracry, Marryang, or Maroang ; but it has now been so hunted down that not an have not always lived to assume the characteristics of the adult, and a comparison of such examples has not in every case been practicable. Moreover, the precise localities whence some of them have been brought have perhaps been wrongly assigned. The promise d work of Prof. Salvador! on the ornithology of New Guinea will very likely clear up many points that are now open to doubt ; and though it is probable that in some instances the same species has been designated by more than one name, it cannot be maintained that every existing species has been brought to our knowledge. 4 The obvious misprint of Dromeicusin this author s work (Analyse, &c., p. 54) has-been foolishly followed by many naturalists, forgetful that he corrected it a few pages further on (p. 70) to Dromaius the

properly latinized form of which is Dromceiis.