Page:The Emu volume 3.djvu/275

 "fifties" Mr. James Cox, of Clarendon, imported one or more from Victoria along with two Native Companions, and others were introduced somewhat earlier.

When in 1802 some members of Baudin's French expedition landed on King Island they were informed by a sealer named Cowper that small, dark Emus were plentiful on that island, and that he himself had killed about three hundred, consequently some have thought that the Emu which used to exist on that island was identical with the extinct Black Emu (Dromæus ater) of Kangaroo Island, while some bones lately received by the National Museum of Melbourne from King Island also bear out the same thought, as they are very much smaller in every way than the mainland birds, and approximate closely to those of D. ater, but more bones must yet be received before the matter can be settled.

It is much to be regretted that so little information can be obtained about the extinct Tasmanian birds, and it is to be hoped that our Tasmanian members of the Aust. O.U. will still endeavour to discover some Emu remains.

specimens of Mirafra, or Bush-Larks, from Broome, N.-W.A., agree among themselves while conspicuously varying from other species in so far as there is no rufous colouring, with only the palest isabelline over portions of them. The lateral or terminal parts of each feather, which are either strong rufous or pale rufous in the known Australian species, are in these birds almost white, while the greater portion of each feather is brownish-black, so that the contrast is great.

What attracts the eye at once is that these specimens appear black and white dorsally and pale cream ventrally. The Australian Mirafræ that I have so far handled have been dorsally strong or pale rufous or brownish, and ventrally strong or pale rufous. Consequently these birds appeal to me as representing a sub-species. It is a well-known fact that certain desert birds distinctly guard themselves in the matter of colouration by agreement with their surroundings. My correspondent, Mr. J. P. Rogers, has collected these particular eight birds on ground that has the birds assimilating in colour with it. He further states to me that on a part of the Fitzroy River, N.-W.A., where the ground is greyish the birds are greyish, but that the majority on the Fitzroy are chocolate, because the ground is of that colour. On the Robinson and Meda Rivers, Mr. Rogers further states, the birds are brown, in agreement with the brown soil. On the Ashburton River, near Onslow, from where Mr. A. W.