THE CASSOWARY. 



25 



peculiar in hatching of its young. The male 

 compels twenty or thirty of the females to lay 

 their eggs in one nest; he then, when they 

 have done laying, chases them away, and 

 places himself upon the eggs ; however, he 

 takes the singular precaution of laying two of 

 the number aside, which he does not sit upon. 

 When the young ones come forth, these two 

 eggs are addled ; which the male having fore- 

 seen, breaks one, and then the other, upon 

 which multitudes of flies are found to settle ; 

 and these supply the young brood with a 

 sufficiency of provision, till they are able to 

 shift for themselves. 



On the other hand, Wafer asserts, that he 

 has seen great quantities of this animal's eggs 

 on the desert shores, north of the river Plata ; 

 where they were buried in the sand, in order 

 to be hatched by the heat of the climate. 

 Both this, as well as the preceding account, 

 may be doubted ; and it is more probable that 

 it was the crocodile's eggs which Wafer had 

 seen, which are undoubtedly hatched in that 

 manner. 



When the young ones are hatched, they 

 are familiar, and follow the first person they 

 meet. I have been followed myself, says 

 Wafer, by many of these young ostriches; 

 which, at first, are extremely harmless and 

 simple ; but as they grow older, they become 

 more cunning and distrustful ; and run so 

 swift, that a greyhound can scarcely overtake 

 them. Their flesh, in general, is good to be 

 eaten ; especially if they be young. It would 

 be no difficult matter to rear up flocks of 

 these animals tame, particularly as they are 

 naturally so familiar: and they might be 

 found to answer domestic purposes, like the 

 hen or the turkey. Their maintenance could 

 not be expensive, if, as Narborough says, 

 they live entirely upon grass. 



CHAP. VI. 



THE CASSOWARY. 1 

 (See Plate XV I II. jig. 23.) 



THE Cassowary is a bird which was first 

 brought into Europe by the Dutch, from Java, 



1 This scarce and remarkable bird (the Struthio Casu- 

 arius of Linnaeus) is found in India, and the most east- 

 ern part of the old continent. Even in its native re- 

 gions it is uncommon; and few are domesticated. The 

 habitual dulness of these birds, their disagreeable voice, 

 and their hard, black flesh, offer no compensation for the 

 cost of rearing arid supporting them. The wild casso- 

 wary feeds on fruits, tender roots, and occasionally on 

 the young of small animals. The tame are fed not only 

 on fruits, but on bread, of which they consume about 



VOL. II. 



in the East Indies, in which part of the world 

 it is only to be found. Next to the preceding, 

 it is the largest and the heaviest of the fea- 

 thered species. 



The cassowary, though not so large as the 

 former, yet appears more bulky to the eye ; 

 its body being nearly equal, and its neck and 

 legs much thicker and stronger in proportion ; 

 this conformation gives it an air of strength 

 and force, which the fierceness and singularity 

 of its countenance conspire to render formida- 

 ble. It is five feet and a half long, from the 

 point of the bill to the extremity of the claws. 

 The legs are two feet and a half high, from 

 the belly to the end of the claws. The head 

 and neck together are a foot and a half ; and 

 the largest toe, including the claw, is five 

 inches long. The claw alone of the least toe, 

 is three inches and a half in length. The 

 wing is so small, that it does not appear ; it 

 being hid under the feathers of the back. In 

 other birds, a part of the feathers serve for 

 flight, and are different from those that serve 

 for merely covering ; but in the cassowary, all 

 the feathers are of the same kind, and out- 

 wardly of the same colour. They are gene- 

 rally double ; having two long shafts, which 

 grow out of a short one, which is fixed in the 

 skin. Those that are double, are always of 

 an unequal length ; for some are fourteen 

 inches long, particularly on the rump; while 

 others are not above three. The beards that 

 adorn the stem or shaft, are, from about half 

 way to the end, very long, and as thick as a 

 horse hair, without being subdivided into 

 fibres. The stem or shaft is flat, shining, 

 black, and knotted below ; and from -each 

 knot there proceeds a beard: likewise the 



four pounds a-day. They run very swiftly, and often 

 outstrip the fleetest horses. They resist dogs by dealing 

 them severe blows with their feet. The male bird ge- 

 nerally leaves his mate to the cares of incubation, which 

 are required only at night; for during the day, their 

 three greyish eggs spotted with green, are exposed to 

 the vivifying effects of the sun, being slightly covered 

 with sand in the hole where they have been laid. In 

 captivity, their incubation lasts eight and twenty days. 

 The first cassowary ever seen iu Europe was brought by 

 the Dutch in 1597. 



The head of the cassowary is almost bare, covered 

 with a bluish skin, out of which grow a few scattered 

 hairs. It is crowned with a conical helmet, brown in 

 front and yellow in other parts ; this helmet is formed 

 by the swelling of the skull-bones. The throat is over- 

 spread with spongy glandular membranes, of a red and 

 violet colour, which hang down in front. The body is 

 covered with feathers of a bluish-black, of a particular 

 character, somewhat similar to long thin hair. The fea- 

 ther of the wing, or what represents the wing, for it is 

 not made for flight, consists of five hollow pipes, free 

 from hair, and red towards the bottom. 



The whole length, from the beak to the rump, of the 

 full-grown bird, is rather more than five feet. The 

 young bird has no helmet, and his plumes are of a light 

 red colour, mixed with gray. 

 D 



