is cassowary was brought alive to Amsterdam in
1597, and was presented to the Estates of Holland at the Hague.[6] A
figure of it, under the name 'eme,' appears in the fourth and fifth
German editions of the account of this voyage of the Dutch to Java, by
Hulsius, published at Frankfort in 1606 and 1625. The figure is a fairly
accurate representation of an immature cassowary.

Whence comes, let us ask, the name 'eme' and the later form, 'emu.' The
_New Historical English Dictionary_ suggests a derivation from a
Portuguese word, 'ema,' signifying a crane. But no authority is quoted
to prove that ema signifies, or ever signified, crane. On the other
hand, various Portuguese dictionaries which have been consulted render
'ema' by 'casoar,' or state that the name 'ema' is applicable to several
birds, of which the crane is not one. Pero de Magalhaes de Gandavo, in
his _Historia da Provincia Sancta Cruz_, published in 1576, uses the
name 'hema' in writing of the rhea or nandu.

It is worthy of note that the Arabic name of the cassowary is 'neama',
and that there were many Arab traders in the Malayan Archipelago at the
time when the Portuguese first navigated it. The Portuguese strangely
distorted Malay and Arabic names, and it would not be surprising if they
reproduced 'neama' as 'uma ema.'

[6] Salvadori, referring to _Hist. Gen. de Voy._ VIII. p. 112, states
that the Cassowary which was brought alive to Europe by the Dutch
in 1597 belonged first to Count Solms van Gravenhage, then to the
Elector Ernest van Keulen, and finally to the Emperor Rudolph II.
_Ornit. della Papuasia e delle Molucche._ III. p. 481.

[Illustration: Abris des wvnderbaren vogels Eme: The Eme]

AUSTRALIAN BIRDS IN 1697

In 1696 the Honourable Directors of the Dutch Chartered Company trading
to the Dutch East Indies decided to send an expedition for the purpose
of searching for missing vessels, especially for the _Ridderschap van
Hollandt_, of which no news had been received for two years. The local
Board of Directors of the Amsterdam Chamber of the Company was charged
to carry out this resolution, and it equipped three vessels which were
placed under the command of Willem de Vlaming. The Commander was
directed to search for missing vessels or for shipwrecked sailors at the
Tristan da Cunha Islands, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Islands of
Amsterdam and St. Paul in the Southern Ocean. Thence he was to proceed
to t