HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GO SS IP. 



Laa 



long hairs, Langs down on each side of the body, 

 from a central line or parting. These birds, at one 

 time abundant in Australia, are now becoming ex- 

 tinct, for natives and Europeans are fast thinning 

 them, the former eating the eggs, and hunting down 

 the emeus for food, but not allowing boys or women 

 to partake of it, the flesh being reserved for warriors 

 and counsellors. Europeans and settlers run it with 

 dogs, trained on purpose, for food, sport, and also 

 for a valuable oil, of which as much as six or seven 

 quarts are yielded by a single emeu. This oil is of 

 a light yellow colour, is used as an embrocation for 

 bruises or strains, aud, not readily congealing or 

 becoming glutinous, is also useful for oiling the 

 locks of firearms. The birds are monogamous, the 

 male performing the office of incubation; the nest is 

 made by scooping out a shallow hole in the ground, 

 in some scrubby spot, and in this depression a 

 variable number of eggs is laid. Dr. Bennett re- 

 marks that " there is always an odd number, some 

 nests having been discovered with nine, others with 

 eleven, and others with thirteen." These eggs are 

 nearly as large as those of the Ostrich, but of a dark 

 green colour, and the young, when first hatched, 

 are elegantly striped with black and grey. In 

 defending itself it does not kick forward like the 

 Ostrich, but sideways and backwards like a cow. 



The Cassowary and the Mooruk. — The Casso- 

 waries, of which there are two— the Cassowary 

 proper, Casuarius galeatus, and the Mooruk, Casu- 

 alius Benefdii—ave natives of the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago. The former, standing 5 feet high, is dis- 

 tinguished by the possession of a peculiar horny 

 crest or helmet upon the head, by the wings being 

 furnished, instead of feathers, with about five cylin- 

 drical stalks, destitute of barbs, and by the large 

 size of the claw on the inner toe. The head and 

 neck are naked and wattled, and of a bright red, 

 variegated with blue. The rest of the body, which 

 is very stout, is clothed with long glossy black pen- 

 dent feathers, more closely resembling hair than 

 those of the Emeu. It feeds upon herbs, fruit, and 

 seeds, and, like the Ostrich, swallows hard sub- 

 stances. The eggs are of a greenish tint. The eye 

 is fierce aud resolute, and the character of the bird 

 is tetchy, and apt to take offence without any appa- 

 rent provocation. Scarlet cloth excites its ire, and 

 it has a great antipathy to ragged aud dirty persons. 

 The height of the Mooruk is 3 feet to the top of the 

 back, and 5 feet when stauding erect. The colour is 

 rufous, mixed with black on the back and hinder 

 portions of the body, and raven -black about the 

 neck and breast ; the loose wavy skin of the neck is 

 coloured with iridescent [tints of bluish purple, 

 pink, and an occasional shade of green ; the feet 

 and legs are large and strong, of a pale ash-colour, 

 and exhibit a peculiarity in the extreme length of 

 the claw of the inner toe of each foot, it being nearly 

 three times the length of the claws of the other 



toes. Instead of the helmeUike protruberauce of 

 the Cassowary, it has a horny plate resembling 

 mother-of-pearl darkened with black-lead. 



The Penguins. — Another set of birds, if not wing- 

 less, must also be mentioned. These are the Pen- 

 guins, in which birds the wings are reduced to a 

 rudimentary character, are destitute of quills, and 

 are covered with a scaly skin, forming flat fin-like 

 paddles, the scales being rudimentary feathers. In 

 the water, which appears their natural element, 

 they use them in swimming and diving. On shore 

 they use the paddles as anterior legs. From the 

 backward position of their feet the Penguins can 

 only stand in a very upright attitude, in which 

 position they may be seen in countless numbers 

 arranged in as compact a manner and in as regular 

 ranks as a regiment of soldiers, aud classed with the 

 greatest order, the moulting birds in one place, the 

 young ones in another, the sitting hens by them- 

 selves ; the clean birds in another place, &c. So 

 strictly do birds in a similar condition congregate, 

 that, should a bird in a moulting state intrude 

 amongst those which are cleau, it is immediately 

 ejected from among them. 



The Plumage of Wingless Birds. — Apart from what 

 may be called the absence of wings, or rather the 

 presence of merely rudimentary wings, wingless 

 birds, leaving possibly the Penguin and Dodo out of 

 the category, are distinguished from other birds by 

 certain marked qualities. In all of them the 

 plumage differs from that of those possessing the 

 power of flight, the barbs of the feathers being 

 always separate, and the whole covering approaching 

 very nearly the character of the hair of animals. 

 The bones, too, are almost destitute of the air-cells, 

 which give so much lightness to the skeletons of 

 ordinary birds, and assimilate more closely to 

 mammalian bone. Erom the mere rudimentary 

 character of the wings there is an almost absence of 

 pectoral muscles, and the sternum is reduced to a 

 simple convex shield without any trace of the keel 

 which in other birds gives attachment to the 

 powerful pectoral muscles. To compensate for this 

 deficiency, the great size and muscularity of the 

 legs render the pace of these birds in running very 

 swift. The pelvis is of large size, and the two 

 sides of the arch unite at the pubis : this is not the 

 case in other birds. The anterior toes are strong, 

 either two or three in number, and terminated by 

 strong nails. The hinder toe, except in the genus 

 Apterix, where it is rudimentary, is entirely wanting. 

 So strong are the legs and muscles in the Ostrich, 

 that it will knock over a hyena with a stroke, or 

 rip up a dog with its claw. At bay it has knocked 

 down and trampled upon the hunter who approached 

 it incautiously. 



The Abode of Brevipeunate Birds. — It must have 

 been noticed that all the brevipennate cursores are 

 confined either to islands or two Southern conti- 



