62 ON THE AUSTRALIAN CASSOWARY. 



tender bulbous roots, and small fish stranded in floods or left in 

 evaporated pools. If man ever acquires the appetite and 

 digestion of the cassowary, the whole human race will soon be 

 exterminated by famine. 



Even the best stuffed specimen gives but a poor repre- 

 sentation of this magnificent bird. The taxidermist has, so far, 

 failed to reproduce the beautiful scarlet and orange colours, and 

 marvellous opalescent shades of light and dark blue on the head 

 and neck. Absent also are the proud imperious carriage, the 

 measured stately stride, the sonorous ventriloquial voice, and 

 the deep dusk fire of the dark lustrous malign eyes. The two 

 long wattles on the throat are found on both male and female. 

 Some are destitute of this appendage, like one of those in our 

 museum. On the top of the head is a ridge-shaped helmet 

 about four or five inches in height, one of Nature's wonderful 

 adaptations to the necessities of environment. Without that 

 helmet a cassowary would have to live in the open forest, for the 

 lawyer vine of the jungle would tear his head and neck to pieces 

 the first time he ran from an enemy. When running in the 

 dense scrub he extends his head and neck ia front in a horizontal 

 position, and the vines glide from his helmet on to his shoulder 

 and thence harmlessly along the plumage of the back. When 

 scared by a sudden surprise, the bird will rush through the 

 undergrowth with a noise like a scrub bullock, tearing vines and 

 breaking bushes, but if he has sighted you quietly he will 

 vanish through the densest mass of tangled vegetation in a 

 manner apparently miraculous. He is a much heavier and far 

 more powerful bird than an emu, and is dangerous to approach 

 when wounded or " bailed up." One of the three toe-nails 

 reaches a length of over four inches, and I have seen a casso- 

 wary tear the side out of a dog and disembowel the animal with 

 one kick. When two males fight they spar like boxers and kick 

 like lightning in three directions — sideways, straight in front, 

 and out behind. I have seen two large birds strike each other 

 simultaneously, the recoil throwing both on their backs. 



At night they camp between the flanges at the root of a 

 tree, or stand, or crouch on the breast, in a patch of lawyer vines 

 or vindergrowth. If approached by a man with a bull's-eye 



