Also 7 emia, eme, 8–9 emew. [Alleged by early travellers (see quot. 1613) to be the name used by the natives of Banda and the neighboring islands; now, however, believed to be a. Pg. ema, orig. denoting the crane, but afterwards applied to the ostrich and to various birds of ostrich-like appearance.
The form emu is perh. now more common in popular writing, and has latterly been adopted in the transactions of the Zoological Society. Prof. Newton, however, and some other eminent authorities prefer the older form emeu.]
† 1. = CASSOWARY 1. Obs.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., I. V. xii. 430. The bird called Emia or Eme is admirable.
1656. H. More, Antid. Ath., II. xi. (1712), 74. The Cassoware or Emeu.
† 2. ? The American Ostrich, Rhea americana. [Perh. an error; the Pg. ema is applied to this bird.]
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., III. 37. The Emu which many call the American Ostrich.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, I. x. 245. The largest bird in Guiana is there called tuyew, and by others emu.
3. A genus (Dromæus) of birds, constituting the family Dromæidæ of the order Megistanes, sub-class Ratitæ. It is peculiar to the Australian continent. The best known species (D. novæ-hollandiæ), discovered soon after the colonization of New South Wales in 1788, was originally regarded as a species of Cassowary; the Emeu and Cassowary are closely allied, but the former is distinguished by the absence of the horny ‘helmet’ and of the caruncles on the neck, and by the presence of a singular opening in the front of the windpipe.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 145/2. The Emeu can produce a hollow drumming sort of note.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, II. xvi. 204. The female of one of the emus (Dromœus irroratus) is considerably larger than the male.
1875. A. R. Wallace, Geog. Distrib. Animals, II. 368. The Emeus are found only on the main-land of Australia.
4. Comb. emeu-tree, a low tree or shrub, a native of Tasmania; emeu-wren, an Australian bird, Stipiturus (or Malurus) malacurus, of the family Sylviidæ.
1865. Gould, Handbk. Birds Australia, I. 339. The Emu Wren is … fond of low marshy districts.
1875. Laslett, Timber & Timber Trees, 206. Emu Tree.
