NATATORES. 351 



to the water. It appears to be strictly a vegetable feeder, 

 and to subsist principally upon grasses in the neighbourhood 

 of the coast ; consequently its flesh is excellent, and all who 

 have tasted it agree in extolling its delicacy and flavour. It 

 bears confinement remarkably well, but is by no means a 

 desirable addition to the farmyard; for it is so pugnacious, 

 that it not only drives all other birds before it, but readily 

 attacks pigs, dogs, or any other animal that may approach, 

 and often inflicts severe wounds with its hard and sharp bill. 



Its voice is a deep, short, hoarse, clanging, and disagreeable 

 sound. It readily breeds in confinement. The eggs are 

 creamy white, about three inches and a quarter in length by 

 two inches and a quarter in breadth. 



The sexes are precisely alike in plumage ; and the young 

 at an early age assume the plumage of the adults, but have 

 the greenish yellow cere much less conspicuous. 



Crown of the head whitish, the remainder of the plumage 

 brownish grey ; the wing-coverts and scapularies with a spot 

 of brownish black near the tip; the feathers of the back 

 margined with pale brownish grey; the apical half of the 

 primaries, the tips of the secondaries, the tail, and the under 

 tail-coverts blackish brown; bill black; cere lemon-yellow ; 

 irides vermilion ; eyelash dark brown ; legs reddish orange ; 

 toes, webs, claws, and a streak up the front of the legs black. 



Living examples of this species have graced the gardens of 

 the Zoological Society, from their formation to the present 

 time ; and also formed part of the extensive collection kept 

 by King George the Fourth in the Great Park at Windsor. 

 They bred there as freely as the Emus or any of the other 

 animals of AustraKa, and are all descended from one pair 

 originally brought to this country. (See a detailed account of 

 the history of the genus Cereopsis, and of these birds, in the 

 late E. T. Bennett's ' Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoologi- 

 cal Society delineated,' Birds, p. 315.) 



