NINTH ANNUAL REPORT. 207 
CERAM CASSOWARY. 
is covered with brown, harsh, double feathers. Its note is a deep 
booming sound which can be heard a long distance. 
Nature is sometimes economical, even to the minutest details, 
and an excellent example of this is found in the feathers of these 
flightless birds, which are devoid of the interlocking hooklets 
which make possible the flight of other types of feathered 
creatures. 
The eggs of the Emeu are from seven to eighteen in number, 
and are laid in a roughly trampled nest of grass. As is the rule 
among the birds of this Subclass, the male takes upon himself 
the duties of incubation and rears the chicks, while the female 
takes charge of the brood of the previous year. The chicks are 
not of a dull-brown colour, like their parents, but are striped with 
