208 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL, SOCIETY. 
bands of black. Aflalo states that “in the year 1888, upwards 
of ten thousand Emeus were destroyed in one district of Australia 
alone, while in the same period fifteen hundred of their eggs were 
broken on one estate. Farmers allege that these birds steal their 
grass and tear their fences. 
“In fact, Nature’s balance seems to have got all topsy-turvy, 
for we find the New South Wales Government spending in 1891 
the extraordinary sum of £50,000 in bonuses for the destruction 
of 871 Emeus, over one million of marsupials, 65,000 hares and 
rabbits, 11,530 dingoes, 3,502 eagle hawks, and some other ma- 
rauders. So ina short time the Australians will have to travel 
to foreign Zoological Parks to see what sort of a bird is this 
Emeu, about which their fathers talked so much.” 
THE CASSOWARY. 
Cassowaries are interesting because of their adaptation to life 
in thick forest and dense undergrowth, rather than in the open. 
They are confined to New Guinea, the northern extremity of 
Australia and the small adjacent islands. _The Cassowaries are 
smaller in size than the emeus, and, although structurally rather 
nearly related to these birds, yet in outward appearance Casso- 
waries have a number of characteristics peculiar to themselves. 
Unlike the other birds of this Subclass, the bare skin of a 
Cassowary’s head and neck is colored with brilliant pigments, 
and sometimes developed into one or more pendant wattles. The 
body feathers of old birds are black; half-grown birds are brown, 
and the young are striped. 
The wings are small and weak, being mere flaps of skin, but 
they are furnished with five or six long, black quills, all that 
remain of the flight feathers which bore their ancestors through 
the air. 
Cassowaries make their nests among the moss and leaves, where 
their eggs, which measure about three by six inches, are well pro- 
tected by the green colour of their shells. They feed on vari- 
ous kinds of vegetable matter, and swallow large quantities of 
pebbles to assist in grinding up their food. These pebbles may 
be as large as hen’s eggs. Little is known of the wild life of the 
Cassowaries, as their haunts are guarded by fierce tribes of can- 
nibals. The few small islands on which they live are almost un- 
explored. About fourteen species are known, differing from 
each other in minor details of wattles, and in the coloring of the 
head and neck. 
