jMOAS. 43 



I fouiul the cnssowarios to be pxcelk'iit swiinnu'i's, and frpqucntly trackoil tliciii 

 across a good-si/.cd creek or river. Their note, most usually emitted by the male, is a 

 series of harsh, guttural, prolonged croakings, ijuickly repeated, ami continued for 

 about three minutes; it is very loud, and may be detected across the water, at a dis- 

 tance of at least three miles, on a still night. I have listened to its resounding through 

 the scrubs at a distance of one and one Iialf miles on land, and then liiought it clos;', 

 and one of the most uneartlily noises I ever heard. 



They breed during the months of August and September. The nest consists of a 

 depression among the fallen leaves and debris, always in the most dense part, and well 

 concealed by entangled masses of vegetation. The eggs were five in number in tlie 

 only two instances recorded, and, in both cases, one of the eggs in each set differed 

 from the other, being of a light-green color, and having a much smoother shell. 



The yomig are of a dull I'usty brown. After the second season, at the age of 18 

 to 24 months, the bhick feathers predominate, and the helmet, which has liitherto been 

 unde\cli)|)ed, more like the shield of a coot, begins to show a keel or ridge in the centre, 

 which raj>idly increases in height. The skin round the head begins to become wrinkled 

 and colored, varying from bluish-green to orange on the lower part, and bright blue un the 

 sides of the neck, the wattles becoming carmine. The helmet still remains couijiara- 

 tively small and undeveloped long after the wattles and naked ])arts of the neck 

 become colored. I believe that the helmet does not attain its full size until the fourth 

 or fiftli year at least. In traversing the scrubs the head is carried low to the grounil, 

 and the vines and branches of trees striking the helmet slide over it on to the l)ack. 

 Otherwise in the dense vine-scrubs bordering the Herbert River and elsewhere, j)ri>- 

 gi-ess would be greatly impeded ; but as it is, the cassowaries traverse tlie scrubs with 

 wonderful speed, jumping over fallen trees and logs when in the way. 



The Superfamily of extinct birds DIXOIJXITIIOIDE.E, which, by some authors 

 is regarded as having ordinal value, under the name of Immanes, iidi.abited Australia 

 and especially Xew Zealand during a not so very distant period, geologically speaking. 

 They were first introduced to the scientific world by Professor llichard Owen in 1>^39, 

 who designated them by the name Dinoniis, giant bird (from the Greek ikhios, 

 tremendous, formidable), and are now generally known as moas, tlie name used by the 

 Maori, tin; natives of Xew Zealand. Moa is the equivalent of the Polynesian wonl 

 "toa," which means the donu'stic fowl, — a significant fact, as it shows that the ]\Iaoris 

 found the giant birds alive when they immigrated into the islands. 



The moas form one of the most interesting groups in ornithology, not only because 

 they help to'fill a gaj) between the other Struthious binls, particularly the Casuaroi- 

 dea;, and the wonderful kiwis, or Apteryges, but also because tliey are an extreme 

 example of the feathered, and therefore originally flying, bird-tyj>o, becoming moclified 

 into an animal bound ami fitted as exclusively to the ground as the horse or the elejihant. 

 And, elcphant-ljirds, indeed, might we call them, were it not that this name would even 

 better fit another group of extinct Struthious birds, the ^jiiornithes from Jlailagascar. 

 The moas show the extreme reduction of the wing among bird.s, their fore-lindis 

 being nearly as much atrophied as are the hind-lind)s of the whale. Hy long disuse, 

 the wings, as they became useless for the accjuisition of food, and unnecessary for 

 escaping danger, since no enemies existed, would become enfeebled and ultimately 

 reduced to mere rudiments, while "the legs, then monopolizing the functions of Inciv 

 motion, would attain, through the concomitant force and frequency of exercise, ]>ropor- 

 tional increase of power and size." (Owen.) 



