206 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Genus CASUARIUS, Linnmis. 



New Guinea and the adjacent islands are the countries in 

 which the birds of this form principally exist ; and it is more 

 than probable that one species is found in Australia. They 

 appear to be the remnant of a great group of Struthious birds 

 closely allied to the Ostriches and Emus, and perhaps still more 

 intimately to the extinct Dinornithes, the remains of which 

 are almost daily being exhumed from the morasses of New 

 Zealand. 



Sp. 494. CASUARIUS AUSTRALTS, Wall 

 Australian Cassowary. 



Casuarius australis, Wall, Illustrated Sydney Herald, June 3, 1854 ; 

 Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xxv. p. 270. 



Although no specimen of this bird has been brought before 

 the scientific world, we cannot, I think, doubt that a species of 

 this form does really exist in the northern part of Australia ; 

 but whether it be identical with some previously described 

 species inhabiting New Guinea and the neighbouring islands, 

 or entirely new, must remain for the present an open cpiestion. 

 All that we at present know on the subject is comprised in 

 the following extract from the * Illustrated Sydney Herald,' 

 above quoted : — " A specimen of this bird was procured by the 

 late Mr. Thomas Wall, naturahst to the expedition commanded 

 by Mr. Kennedy. It was shot near Cape York, in one of 

 those almost inaccesssible gullies which abound in that part 

 of the Australian continent. This Cassowary, when erect, 

 stands about five feet high ; the head is without feathers, but 

 covered with a blue skin, and, like the Emu, is almost without 

 wings, having mere rudiments ; the body is thickly covered 

 with dark brown wiry feathers ; on the head is a large pro- 

 minence or helmet of a bright red colour, and to the neck are 

 attached, like bells, six or eight round fleshy balls of bright 



