134 HON. W. EOTHSCHILD ON THE GENUS CASUARIUS. 



is bright red. The casque is about equally developed at this age in the two species. 

 The legs of the new species are smaller, from which I doubt if it attains to quite so 

 large a size as the other." 



The next we hear concerning this species is the arrival of an immature bird in the 

 Zoological Garden of Amsterdam ; this grew up, and thus was afterwards the fii'st adult 

 described and figured by Schlegel. Also in this case Rosenberg was the first to 

 discover the actual home, for he obtained it on the island of Salwatti, and afterwards 

 specimens became known from several places on the opposite coast. 



The bird in Amsterdam laid a pale green egg, "thickly covered with raised spots of 

 dark green, and measuring 136 : 89 mm." 



I have an egg in my collection (from the Buckley collection, bought from T. Cooke, 

 1871, who had it in exchange from ''Mr. Franks": this means probably that it was 

 from the Amsterdam dealer Frank, who had it from the Zoological Gardens, for it has 

 on its label " Maart 1865 " (or 6, tlie 5 being obliterated), tliis being about the time 

 when the bird laid eggs there). This egg differs from other Cassowary-eggs in having 

 numerons single glazed round knobs, like pin-heads, few of them being connected 

 with each other. The descriptions of the two eggs of C. unappendiculatus by Schalow 

 {I. c), both from different sources, agree with mine — the peculiar isolated piu-head-like 

 elevations being well described and discussed as distinguishing the unajipendiculatus- 

 egg from all others. One of those in the British Museum, about the origin of which 

 there is no doubt, as it is one of the eggs laid in Amsterdam, agrees also with these in 

 having the separate knobs, while two others, from Frank, and one said to have come 

 from Salwatti, are more like those of Casuarius casuarius. The one with the isolated 

 knobs measures 137 : 88 mm., my own 151 : 81, Schalow's 146 : 96, 148-5 : 49'5 mm., 

 while Sclater gives only 136 : 89. Sclater also speaks of raised "spots" only. On the 

 other hand, seven eggs in the Leydeu Museum, sent by Bernstein and Rosenberg, and 

 said to be from Sorong and Salwatti, do not show these characteristic isolated pin-head- 

 like elevations, but rather a more connected network of glazed granulations. They 

 measure 145 : 90, 145 : 91, 145 : 90, 143 : 91, 147 : 92, 142 : 95, 145 : 96 mm. They 

 are all very large. 



It must therefore be left to future research whether the peculiarly isolated knobs on 

 some well-authenticated eggs oi C. unappendiculatus are a specific character ; but at 

 present this view cannot be taken, unless the identity of all the eggs in the Leyden 

 Museum and of some of those in the British Museum is doubted. 



As usual, we know nothing definite respecting the biology of this bird in a wild state. 

 Kosenberg tells us that an immature bird he got in Ternate was running about freely 

 and was much attached to people, while it was a fierce enemy to cats and dogs. When 

 it got angry it put up its feathers and emitted a peculiar blowing cry, followed by a 

 grunting like that of a young pig. 



