82



Dr. Graham Renshaw,



CASSOWARIES.


By Graham Renshaw, M.D., F.R.S.E.


To those avieulturists who are fond of strange pets the writer

cordially recommends a tame cassowary. Not only are these noble

birds handsome in appearance, of marked intelligence and compara¬

tive rarity, but their nidification and breeding habits are practically

unknown. Ostriches, emus, and rheas multiply by the dozen under

European skies, but a successful breeder of cassowaries is rare in¬

deed. Tins is unfortunate, for the bright hues and shining sable

plumage of most species of Casuarius render them highly interesting

subjects for aviculture.


Cassowaries are hatched from eggs which in their coarsely

granulated surface much resemble those of emus ; but cassowary

eggs are lighter in colour, being first of a pale green tint, becoming

bluish and finally greyish on exposure to light. The chicks are

yellowish or rufous, and longitudinally shaped with black : as they

grow older they become entirely yellowish or rufous. When about

half-grown a ridge or keel appears on the head: the bare parts

of the head and fore-neck are of a dull leaden hue, the hind-neck

is dull red or dull yellow. With increasing age all these characters

grow more pronounced. The head and neck become brilliant with

gaudy tints—blue, scarlet, orange, lemon yellow or golden yellow ;

the keel rises above the head like a regular helmet, differing in

shape according to the species; scarlet or violet wattles appear

on the throat. The plumage gradually becomes suffused with

black, until the rufous has been entirely replaced by sable : the

change from rufous to black appearing first about the breast and

neck, and passing gradually from before backwards. Some casso¬

waries have two wattles, others only one: a third small group has

none at all.


Coincident with these structural changes there is a marked

mental development. Young cassowaries are always tame, inquisi¬

tive, and good tempered. The smallest seen by the writer was about

one-quarter grown, it w r as a funny little creatui’e, of a rufous brown

hue all over, without either helmet or wattles ; it was inquisitive

almost to a nuisance, and quite tame. This trait of inquisitiveness



