322 



THE CASSOWARY. 



will run along with a person on their back; and it is on 

 record, that F. Firraius, who reigned in Egypt in the 

 third century, was drawn in a chariot by Ostriches. 

 Their strength of leg renders them sometimes very mis- 

 chievous; and at a farm in the Cape of Good Hope, 

 the owner was obliged to kill a favourite tame one, 

 which was not satisfied with swallowing chickens whole, 

 and trampling hens to death, in order to tear them in 

 pieces, but at last took to trampling even sheep to death. 

 The Cassowary and Emu in many respects resemble 

 the Ostrich, differing from him chiefly in the plumage, 

 which in the former partakes more of the nature of hair 



or bristles, than of 

 feathers. They are 

 lively birds, and 

 frisk and dance 

 away when roused, 

 when they look very 

 like a woolly cushion 

 on the top of two 

 poles. Like the Os- 

 trich, they are stu- 

 pid, and like it, also 

 run with amazing 

 swiftness; so much 

 so, that it is very 

 difficult to run them 

 down, unless by the swiftest dogs, and by them only in 

 an open country. They defend themselves by kicking 

 with their powerful legs, and the blow is quite sufficient 

 to stun a dog, or even at times to fracture a man's leg ; 

 accordingly, dogs trained for hunting them, always ap- 

 proach the running bird, not; immediately in its rear, 

 but a little on one side, so as to turn and seize it by the 

 body. 



In the Emu of New Holland, there is also a very 

 curious internal bag, or pouch, connected with the wind- 

 pipe, but having no communication with the other air- 



Cassowary. 



