lO/O NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



Obstrvatio/ia. — The eggs of the Cassowaiy arc especially interesting, 

 not only for their great beauty, but for being tlie largest and amongst 

 tlie rarest of Australian eggs. I'he splendid birds themselves possess 

 a l imi ted habitat, being confined to a nanow strip of coastal scrub- 

 country, about three hundred miles in length, in Northern Queensland, 

 the southern bound;u-y being the Herbert River (where the birds are 

 now almost unknown), tlie northern Uniit being well up into the head of 

 the Cape York Peninsula. 



On accoiuit of the Cassowary's naturally restricted area being taken 

 up by planters ajid others, the noble bird should he ligorously protected, 

 or it will as smely soon become extinct like the Emus of Tasmania and 

 Kangaroo Island. It has been suggested that the large scrxib-clad island 

 of Hincliinbrook, adjacent to the mainland, be a reserve for the per- 

 petual protection of Cassowaries. A more suitable place for tlie purpose 

 could not well be found. 



Really little is yet known of the habits of the Cassowary — a great 

 bird full of speculative interest to natiu-alists, inasmuch as it is supposed 

 to be one of the living representatives, or, perhaps, the surviving contem- 

 porary of such large extinct birds as the Moas of New Zealand. The 

 Australian. Cassowary was first discovered by the late Thomas Wall, 

 naturalist to the expedition commanded by the iU-fated explorer 

 Kennedy, and was described as Ca/fvarius australis in the " Illustrated 

 Sydney Herald," 3rd Jvinc, 1854.* The second specimen was shot, 

 September, 1866, by Mr. R. Johnson, Inspector of Police — now Police 

 Magistrate, Queensland. The bird is still called, in some paits of that 

 colony, Johnson's Cassowary. 



Dr. E. P. Ramsay, in the " Proceedings of the Zoological Society " 

 for 1876, furnishes an e.xceedingly interesting account of tlie Cassowary. 



I fully conciu- with Dr. Ramsay's remarks about the wariness and 

 shyness of the Cassowary, and r(_peated his experience by rctimiing 

 without a specimen, although my companions and myself endcavoiu-ed 

 persistently to obtain a bird in the flesh, which we wanted for a museum. 

 Once we divided our party for a week — two proceeding twenty miles 

 in one direction, and two a like distance in an opposite direction. 

 Frequently we noticed the bird's fresh tracks by the banks of streams, 

 but at the end of our appointed time wo returned to ovu- st^irting-point 

 (camp) without " Ymi-gun,'' as the aboriginals call the Cassowaiy, or in 

 pigeon-EngUsh, " Big-fellow Chookic-chookie." 



A considerate selector {i.e., a person who selects and dwells upon the 

 land under Government regulations), hoping to do us a service, brought 

 us a mangled skin, which had every appearance of liaving been skinned 

 with his axe. 



It is difficult to undei-staiid how such a bulky bird as the Cassowaiy 

 can push its way through the (>ntanglenient of vines, canes and ci-eepei-s, 

 in such a rapid, free, and easy manner as it is credited witli. To aid 

 tlio bird in so (|uickly threading the scrub when pui-sucd, no doubt its 



" It was described by Mr. Win. S Wall, brother of Mr. Thomas W.ill. who 

 succumbed to the privations of the expedition on the 2Sth December. i8.)S The 

 Cassowary was sliot on the 4th of the previous month, by " Jackey," ,1 faithful 

 aborigine, and had to be abandoned. 



