BY A. MESTON. 61 



being seen on the rivers running to the Gulf of Carpentaria, 

 The favourite habitat of the bird includes the Johnstone, Russell, 

 Mulgrave, Mosman, Daintree, and Bloomfield rivers. North of 

 Cooktown it inhabits the belts of jungle on the east coast from 

 Princess Charlotte Bay to Newcastle Bay. 



A full-grown cassowary stands from five to six feet in height 

 and weighs from 150 to 200lbs. One shot by my son during the 

 Bellenden-Ker expedition, in 1889, and weighed in presence of 

 the Colonial Botanist, wa« 1841bs. This bird is now in the 

 Queensland Museum. The second bird in the museum was shot 

 by me on the Barron River, and weighed 1701bs. One shot by 

 John Nairne on Freshwater Creek, near Cairns, weighed 2501bs., 

 and I have seen specimens that must have stood six feet six 

 inches and weighed nearly 3001bs. 



So large a bird requires an enormous quantity of food, and a 

 full-grown one must eat at least a hundred pounds of fruit daily. 

 Wild fruits of many kinds grow in great abundance in the 

 scrubs mhabited by the c ',ssowary. Every bird has a favourite 

 feeding-ground, and comes year after year to some particular tree 

 or trees, generally the oil nut {Aleurites Muliiccana), pencil cedar 

 {Lucuma fialacto.rj/lon), Omplidlras, Cnjptocari/as, or Davidsonian 

 Plum {D. pni liens). The cassowary is also fond of the Burde- 

 kin Plum {Pleioj/ipiium Sol.andri), which grows alike on good soil 

 and the open forest sandy belts ne'ar the seabeach. About twenty 

 different fruits are eaten by the cassowaries on the Russell, 

 Mulgrave, Barron, and Daintree rivers. In captivity they are 

 very impartial in their diet, displaying uncontrolled omnivorous 

 propensities, and swallowing with equal satisfaction boiled sweet 

 potatoes, raw liver, fresh eggs, dead rats, and glass marbles. I 

 never knew anything seriously disorganise the epigastric region 

 of a cassowary except a tin of red lead. The digesting 

 apparatus, which yields excellent pepsine, is a large digestive sac, 

 7iot the ordinary gizzard of a bird. Connected with this sac is 

 a single large intestinal canal like that of a tiger, and the 

 digesting process is effected with astonishing rapidity. All food 

 is imperfectly assimilated, the harder fruits occasionally showin"' 

 very trifling changes. A young cassowary will at times retain 

 his food not more than an hour. Though chiefly frugivorous 

 the wild cassowary also eats beetles, rats, mice, young birds, 



