562 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



culiar to such situations. The hair-hke character of its 

 feathers bespeak these habits and mode of hfe, as much as 

 the phimes of the Ostriches aud Rheas do their adaptation 

 for open plains and savannahs. 



Compared with the Cassowary, the Mooruk is a smaller and 

 shorter bird, and has much thicker legs ; and the helmet, in- 

 stead of being in the form of an elevated casque with a short 

 rounded ridge, rises high at the base, and then branches out 

 into two overhanging lobes, the horny part which unites them 

 being lowest in the centre — the back part of this elevated 

 double crest being flat and rising rather obliquely from the 

 head near the occiput. The colouring of the Mooruk, when 

 it first arrived in England, was rufous mixed with black on 

 the back and under part of the body, and raven-black about 

 he neck and breast ; the loose wavy skin of the neck was 

 beautifully coloured with iridescent tints of bluish purple, 

 pink, and an occasional shade of green ; and the feet and legs 

 were of a pale ash-colour. The body has now become gene- 

 rally darker, the bare skin of the fore part of the neck of 

 a more uniform smalt blue, and the legs of a some- 

 what darker tint. 



Dr. Bennett, after whom I have named the bird as a just 

 compliment to one who has ever manifested the greatest love 

 for Natural History, besides presenting the living birds to 

 the Zoological Society, has enriched the volumes of their 

 * Proceedings ' with some interesting details as to the habits of 

 the bird while living in his possession at Sydney — some in 

 the form of letters to myself, others as direct communications; 

 and these I have great pleasure in reproducing here : — 



The Mooruk was obtained at a native village under two 

 hills, named by navigators the Mother and Daughter, on that 

 part of the coast of New Britain lying between Cape Palliser 

 and Cape Stephen. 



" The feet and legs, which are very large and strong, are 

 of a pale ash-colour, and exhibit a remarkable peculiarity in 



