THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 139 



with more leaves, &c., so that the heat of the decaying vegetation 

 may hatch them out. The young ones make their exit by 

 scratching with their specially adapted feet as they He on their 

 backs in the mound. 



Where the giant creepers and cUmbing plants are found in the 

 densest part of the scrub there is to be found the Cassowary, 

 Casuariiis australis, Australia's noblest bird. Specimens have 

 been recorded weighing nearly 250 lbs., compared with which the 

 heaviest Emu weighs about 120 lbs. They are proud of mien, 

 and have been known to jump a fence 8 feet high for the purpose 

 of fighting an adversary. They are provided with a large horny 

 casque, to enable them, whilst running through the thorny scrub, 

 which they do with the head thrust forward, to push aside the 

 prickly boughs, and so save the neck, which is bare. The wings 

 perform the same duty for the body. It must be remembered 

 that the Cassowary is a flightless bird, and is provided with long, 

 hard quills instead of feathers on its wings. The feathers, too, 

 are hard and bristly, and specially adapted for traversing thorny 

 country. 



These birds are easily hunted, owing to their plucky nature — 

 that is, provided you have dogs accustomed to them. After a 

 short run through the scrub they will turn and face the dogs, and 

 gradually drive them back to their owner for protection, the dogs 

 knowing full well that one kick from a Cassowary's huge leg 

 would be instant death. Their leg development is two or three 

 times that of an average Emu, and as Emus have been repeatedly 

 known to break a strong wire fence, one can imagine the force of 

 a Cassowary's kick. On one occasion a turkey-hunter was out 

 looking for Scrub Turkeys when his dogs killed a young Cassowary 

 close to the road along which he was walking, when out rushed the 

 mother and attacked him so fiercely that he had to shoot it for his 

 own protection. 



Cuckoos are well represented in the north, and conduct them- 

 selves as in other parts, in that ihey do not burden themselves 

 with the hatching of their eggs or rearing of their young, getting 

 other birds to do so for them. Laying an egg on the ground the 

 cuckoo takes it in its bill and places it in the nest of a wren or 

 some other small bird, which hatches out and faithfully rears the 

 young cockoo. A few hours after being hatched the young 

 cuckoo commits wholesale murder by throwing out the other 

 occupants of the nest, whether they be birds or eggs. This action 

 is caused by the sensitive nerves with which nature has endowed 

 the skin of the young cuckoo receiving a stimulus or irritation on 

 coming into contact with the heated surface of the skin of its 

 puny fellow-nestjings, and urging it to eject its foster-brethren. 

 It seems impossible that such a small, featherless mite could at 

 this stage of its existence instinctively know that the nest would 



