Editing Emu (section)

===History===
Emus were first reported as having been seen by Europeans when explorers visited the western coast of Australia in 1696. This was during an expedition led by Dutch captain [[Willem de Vlamingh]] who was searching for survivors of a ship that had gone missing two years earlier.<ref name=Robert>{{cite book|author=Robert, Willem Carel Hendrik |title=The explorations, 1696–1697, of Australia by Willem De Vlamingh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fDfgAAAAMAAJ |year=1972 |publisher=Philo Press |isbn=978-90-6022-501-1 |page=140}}</ref> The birds were known on the eastern coast before 1788, when the first Europeans settled there.<ref name=e5>Eastman, p. 5.</ref> The birds were first mentioned under the name of the "New Holland [[cassowary]]" in [[Arthur Phillip]]'s ''Voyage to Botany Bay'', published in 1789 with the following description:<ref name="Gould">{{cite book |author=Gould, John |year=1865 |title=Handbook to the Birds of Australia |volume=2 |pages=200–203 |url=https://archive.org/details/handbooktobirdso02gou|location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Philip | first=Arthur | year=1789 | title=The voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay | place=London | publisher=Printed by John Stockdale | pages=271–272 | url=https://archive.org/stream/voyageofgovernor00phil_0#page/n403/mode/2up }}</ref>

{{Blockquote|This is a species differing in many particulars from that generally known, and is a much larger bird, standing higher on its legs and having the neck longer than in the common one. Total length seven feet two inches. The bill is not greatly different from that of the common Cassowary; but the horny appendage, or helmet on top of the head, in this species is totally wanting: the whole of the head and neck is also covered with feathers, except the throat and fore part of the neck about half way, which are not so well feathered as the rest; whereas in the common Cassowary the head and neck are bare and carunculated as in the turkey.
The plumage in general consists of a mixture of brown and grey, and the feathers are somewhat curled or bent at the ends in the natural state: the wings are so very short as to be totally useless for flight, and indeed, are scarcely to be distinguished from the rest of the plumage, were it not for their standing out a little. The long spines which are seen in the wings of the common sort, are in this not observable,—nor is there any appearance of a tail. The legs are stout, formed much as in the Galeated Cassowary, with the addition of their being jagged or sawed the whole of their length at the back part.}}

[[File:Emu skeleton.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|Mounted emu skeleton]]

The species was named by ornithologist [[John Latham (ornithologist)|John Latham]] in 1790 based on a specimen from the [[Sydney]] area of Australia, a country which was known as [[New Holland (Australia)|New Holland]] at the time.<ref name="Davies" /><ref>{{cite book| last= Latham| first= John | author-link=John Latham (ornithologist) | year=1790 | title= Index Ornithologicus, Sive Systema Ornithologiae: Complectens Avium Divisionem in Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, Ipsarumque Varietates (Volume 2) | language=la | place=London | publisher = Leigh & Sotheby | page=665 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1vZAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA665}}</ref> He collaborated on Phillip's book and provided the first descriptions of, and names for, many Australian bird species; ''[[Dromaius]]'' comes from a Greek word meaning "racer" and ''novaehollandiae'' is the Latin term for New Holland, so the name can be rendered as "fast-footed New Hollander".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gotch |first1=A.F. |title=Latin Names Explained. A Guide to the Scientific Classifications of Reptiles, Birds & Mammals|year=1995 |orig-year=1979 |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=978-0-8160-3377-5 |page=179 |chapter=16}}</ref> In his original 1816 description of the emu, the French ornithologist [[Louis Pierre Vieillot]] used two [[genus|generic]] names, first ''Dromiceius'' and later ''Dromaius''.<ref>{{cite book |author=Vieillot, Louis Pierre|title=Analyse d'une nouvelle ornithologie élémentaire, par L.P. Vieillot |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i02jJBjImYkC&pg=PA54 |year=1816 |publisher=Deteville, libraire, rue Hautefeuille |pages=54, 70}}</ref> It has been a point of contention ever since as to which name should be used; the latter is more correctly formed, but the convention in [[Taxonomy (biology)#Alpha and beta taxonomy|taxonomy]] is that the first name given to an organism stands, unless it is clearly a [[typographical error]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Generic name of the Emu|pages=592–593 |author=Alexander, W.B.|journal=Auk |volume=44 |year=1927 |doi=10.2307/4074902 |issue=4 |jstor=4074902 |url=https://sora.unm.edu/node/14236 |doi-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Most modern publications, including those of the Australian government,<ref name="ag" /> use ''Dromaius'', with ''Dromiceius'' mentioned as an alternative spelling.<ref name=ag />