342 Birds. 



about the neck are two protuberances of a bluish colour, 

 in shape like the wattles of a cock. The feathers consist 

 of long, slender, separate barbs, which hang down on 

 each side of the body, so that at a distance he looks as 

 if he were entirely covered with the hairs of a bear 

 rather than with the plumage of a bird. His height is 

 about five feet. The Cassowary is as voracious as the 

 ostrich, and eats indiscriminately whatever comes in his 

 way, and does not seem to have any sort of predilection 

 in the choice of his food. The Dutch travellers assert 

 that he can devour not only glass, iron, and stones, but 

 even burning coals, without testifying the smallest fear, 

 or sustaining the least injury ; and it is said that the 

 passage of his food is performed so speedily that even 

 eggs will pass unbroken. He is a native of some of the 

 Indian islands. The eggs of the female are nearly 

 fifteen inches in circumference, of a greenish colour. It 

 has been said of the Cassowary that he has the head of a 

 warrior, the eye of a lion, the armament of a porcupine, 

 and the swiftness of a courser. 



A Cassowary once kept in the menagerie of the mu- 

 seum at Paris, devoured every day between three and 

 four pounds weight of bread, six or seven apples, and a 

 bunch of caiTots. In summer it drank about four pints 

 of water in the day, and in winter somewhat more. It 

 swallowed all its food without bruising it. This bird 

 was sometimes ill-tempered and mischievous, and much 

 irritated when any person approached it of a dirty 

 or ragged appearance, or dressed in red clothes, and 

 frequently attempted to strike at them by kicking for- 

 ward with its feet. It has been known to leap out 

 of its enclosure and to tear the legs of a man with its 

 claws. 



The Cassowary is very vigorous and powerful; its 

 beak being, in. proportion, much stronger than that of 

 the ostrich, it has the means of defending itself with 

 great advantage, and of easily pulling down and breaking 

 in pieces almost any hard substance. It strikes in a very 

 dangerous manner with its feet either behind or before, 

 not unlike the kicking of a horse, at any object which 

 offends it, and runs with surprising swiftness. 



