294 



THE CASSOWARY 



At Bornou, in the interior of Africa, they adopt a very 

 different method, for which patience instead of speed is 

 required : on finding a nest, a hole is dug, in which the finder 

 buries himself, leaving only his head and arms free, and then 

 quietly waits the return of the bird ; and when she is steadily 

 seated on her nest, an arrow is shot through her head. 



So great is their muscular strength, that tame ones will run 

 along with a person on their back ; and it is on record that 

 F. Firmius, who reigned in Egypt in the third century, was 

 drawn in a chariot by Ostriches. Their strength of leg renders 

 them sometimes very mischievous ; 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 Ostrich they 

 are stupid, and like it, 

 also run with amazing 

 swiftness; so much so, 

 that it is very difficult to 

 The Cassowary. 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 approach 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 verv curious 



