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Show 376 MR. P. L. SCLATER ON THE AUSTRALIAN CASSOWARY. [Julie 1 1, June 11, 1868. Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. Mr. P. L. Sclater exhibited a very fine and perfect skin of the Australian Cassowary (Casuarius australis), which had been transmitted to him by Mr. Charles J. Scott of Queensland, and was believed to be the first example of this species that had reached Europe. Mr. Sclater alluded to several former occasions on which notices of this species had been brought before the Society*, and remarked that its rediscovery in Australia was mainly due to the exertions of the Messrs. Scott, who had so kindly interested themselves in the matter, as already recorded in the Society's 'Proceedings' (see P. Z. S. 1866, p. 557). The present specimen of the Australian Cassowary had been shot in the beginning of November last by Mr. Henry Stone, overseer to Messrs. Scott Brothers and Co., at their station in the Vale of Herbert, in the same scrub from which the specimen described by Mr. Krefft in the Society's 'Proceedings' for 1867 (p. 482) had been procured. Alongjwith the specimen, Mr. Scott had forwarded to Mr. Sclater a careful description of the head and naked parts of the neck, which Mr. Sclater intended to place, along with the specimen, at the disposal of Mr. Gould, in order that the bird might be properly illustrated in the Supplement to the Birds of Australia. Mr. Sclater further remarked that some naturalists had been inclined to doubt whether the Casuarius australis would prove to be really distinct from the well-known Casuarius galeatus of Ceram, but that he believed that no one who had examined the present specimen could any longer doubt upon the matter. Mr. Sclater had not yet had an opportunity of making a careful comparison between the two birds; but the following appeared to be noticeable points of distinction between the two species :- 1. The different form of the vertical crest. It would be observed that in the Australian bird the crest was of a different shape from that of C. galeatus, rising much more erect from the head and attaining a much greater development than even in the largest examples of the latter species, of which there was at the present moment a very fine specimen living in the Society's Gardens. In C. australis also the crest was extremely compressed towards the edges, terminating in two thin laminae of horn united in a medial line. 2. The thicker and stouter tarsi, and the greater development and straightness of the elongated claw on the inner toe of C. australis. 3. In the fine cobalt-blue colour of the naked throat and front part of the neck, the corresponding parts in C. galeatus being of a dull purple. The following were stated to be the dimensions of the present specimen of C. australis, which appeared to indicate that the species * Cf. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 557; 1867, pp. 241, 473, 482. |
