stralian Roller. Joao de Barros,
in his _Asia_, mentions the parrots of the Banda Islands,[5] and we find
accordingly that one of the Psittaci is recorded from Banda in modern
times, namely, _Eos rubra_, a red, or rather a crimson lory. The
ornithologist Mueller saw many of these birds in Great Banda, on the
Kanary trees. Additional pigeons are the seed-eating _Chalcophaps
chrysochlora_ and the fruit-eating _Ptilonopus wallacei_, and finally
there is one gallinaceous bird which is probably resident, but the shy
and retiring habits of which have enabled it to escape observation until
recently. This is a Scrub Fowl (_Megapodius duperreyi_).

[5] III. v. 6. 'Muitos papagayos & passaros diversos.'

THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME 'EMU'

The name 'emu' has an interesting history. It occurs in the forms 'emia'
and 'eme' in _Purchas his Pilgrimage_, in 1613. 'In Banda and other
islands,' says Purchas, 'the bird called emia or eme is admirable.' We
should probably pronounce 'eme' in two syllables, as e-me. This eme or
emia was doubtless a cassowary--probably that of Ceram. The idea that it
was a native of the Banda Group appears to have existed in some quarters
at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but the idea was assuredly
an erroneous one. So large a struthious bird as the cassowary requires
more extensive feeding-grounds and greater seclusion than was to be
found in any island of the Banda Group, and, as at the present day so in
the past, Ceram was the true home of the Malayan cassowary, which found
and which finds in the extensive forests of that island the home adapted
to its requirements. It is, however, equally certain that at an early
date the Ceram cassowary was imported into Amboyna and probably into
Banda also, and we know of an early instance of its being introduced
into Java, and from Java into Europe. When the first Dutch expedition to
Java had reached that island, and when the vessels of which it was
composed were lying at anchor off Sindaya, some Javans brought a
cassowary on board Schellenger's ship as a gift, saying that the bird
was a rare one and that it swallowed fire. At least, so they were
understood to say, but that they really did say so is somewhat doubtful.
However, the sailors put the matter to the test by administering to the
bird a dose of hollands; perhaps the hollands was ignited and
administered in the form of liquid fire, but it is not expressly stated
that this was the case. Th