Der Neu Hollandische Casoar [King Island Emu]

This image is based on the engraving by Charles Alexander Lesueur, first issued in the account of the Baudin expedition and probably depicts both subspecies of the now extinct Kangaroo Island and King Island Emus.

Stephanie Pfennigwerth of the Australian Museum has proposed that the larger, light-ruffed “male” was actually drawn after a captive Kangaroo Island emu, that the smaller, dark “female” is a captive King Island emu, that the scenario is fictitious, and the sexes of the birds indeterminable. They may instead only have been assumed to be male and female of the same species due to their difference in size. A crooked claw on the “male” has also been interpreted as evidence that it had lived in captivity, and it may also indicate that the depicted specimen is identical to the Kangaroo Island emu skeleton in Paris, which has a deformed toe. The juvenile on the right may have been based on the Paris skin of an approximately five-month-old King Island emu specimen, which may in turn be the individual that died on board le ewduring rough weather, and was presumably stuffed there by Lesueur himself. The chicks may instead simply have been based on those of mainland emus, as none are known to have been collected.

The King Island emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae minor) is an extinct subspecies of emu that was endemic to King Island. The King Island emu was the smallest of all emus, and had darker plumage than the mainland emu. It was black and brown, and had naked blue skin on the neck, and its chicks were striped like those on the mainland. The subspecies was distinct from the likewise diminutive Kangaroo Island emu (D. baudinianus)

1. KING ISLAND EMU

Common name: King Island Emu
Binomial name: Dromaius novaehollandiae minor
First described: Spencer 1906 Walter Baldwin
(Spencer coined the name Dromaius minor based on some Pleistocene sub fossil bones and eggshells found on King Island the same year, believing they were the first physical evidence of an emu from there.)

Distribution Extinct: Kangaroo Island and King Island

2. KANGAROO ISLAND EMU

Common name: Kangaroo Island Emu or Dwarf Emu
Binomial name: Dromaius baudinianus
First described: Parker 1984
Distribution: Extinct. Kangaroo Island

The Kangaroo Island Emu was first discovered by Matthew Flinders in 1802 and reported to be quite common. The first bones were discovered in 1903. In 1990, Jouanin and Jean-Christophe Balouet demonstrated that the mounted skin in Paris came from King Island, and that at least one live bird had been brought from each island. All scientific names given to the Kangaroo Island emu were therefore based on specimens from King Island or were otherwise invalid, leaving it nameless. More recent finds of sub-fossil material and subsequent studies on King and Kangaroo Island emu, notably by Shane A. Parker in 1984, confirmed their separate geographic origin and distinct morphology.

Parker named the Kangaroo Island bird, Dromaius baudinianus, after the leader of the French expedition. He based it on a sub-fossil specimen from Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

References:
Ferguson, J. A. Bibliography of Australia Volumes 1-8, Canberra 1976 : 581.

Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID: 741336
State Library Victoria: RARELTB 919 L64F
State Library New South Wales: Call Numbers 980/L