[ 56 ] 



of the bird was tetcby, and it was apt to take oft'ence without any 

 apparent provocation. Scarlet cloth excited its ire, and it had a 

 great antipathy to ragged and dirty persons. The height of the 

 mooruk was 3ft. to the top of the back, and 5ft. when standing 

 erect. The colour was rufous, mixed with black on the back and 

 hinder portions of the body, and raven black about the neck and 

 breast ; the loose wavy skin of the neck was coloured with irridiscent 

 tints of bluish purple, pink, and an occassional shade of green; 

 the feet and legs were large and strong, of a pale ash colour, and 

 exhibited a peculiarity in the extreme length of the claw of the 

 inner toe of each foot, it being nearly three times the length of the 

 claws of the other toes. Instead of the helmet-like protuberance 

 of the cassowary, it had a hoi"ny plate resembling mother-of-pearl 

 darkened with black lead. 



THE PENGUINS. 



Another set of birds, if not wingless, should also be mentioned, 

 these were the Penguins, in which birds the wings were reduced to 

 a rudimentai'y character, were destitute of quills, and were covei'ed 

 with a scaly skin forming flat fin-like paddles, the scales being 

 rudimentary feathers. In the water, which appeared their natural 

 element, they used them in swimming and diving. On shore they 

 used the paddles as anterior legs. From the backward position of 

 their feet the Penguins could only stand in a very upright 

 attitude, in which position they might be seen in countless numbers 

 arranged in as compact a manner and in as regular ranks as a 

 regiment of soldiers, and classed with the greatest order, the 

 moulting bii'ds in one place, the young ones in another, the sitting 

 hens by themselves ; the clean birds in another place, &c. So 

 strictly did birds in a similar condition congregate that should a 

 bird in a moulting state intrude amongst those which were clean, 

 it was immediately ejected from among them. 



THE PLUMAGE OF WINGLESS BIRDS. 



Apart from what might be called the absence of wings or 

 rather the presence of merely rudimentary wings, wingless birds, 

 leaving possibly the penguin and dodo out of the category, were 

 distinguished fi'om other birds by certain marked qualities. In all 

 of them the plumage differed from that of those possessing the 

 power of flight, the barbs of the feathers being always separate, 



