T H E C A S S O W A R Y. 13; 



places, but chiefly in the middle. About the middle of the neck 

 before, at the rife of the large feathers, there are two procefles, round at 

 the bottom, formed by the fkin, which refemble fomewhat :he gills of a 

 cock, but are blue as well as red. The fkin, which covers the forcrparc 

 of the breail, on which this bird leans and relh, is hard, callous, and 

 bare. The thighs and legs are covered with feathers, and are extremely 

 thick, ftrong, ftraight, and covered with feales of feveral fhapes j buc the legs 

 are thicker a little above the foot than in any other place. The toes are 

 likewife covered with feales, and are three in number: the claws are of a 

 hard folid fubftance, black without, and v/hite within, 



The internal parts are equally remarkable. The caflbwary unites, with 

 the double ftomach of animals that live upon vegetables, the<(hort intef- 

 tines of thofe that live upon flefli. The heart is very fmall, b^ing buc an 

 inch and an half long, and an inch broad at the bafe. 



It never attacks others; and inftead of the bill, when attacked, it rather 

 makes ufe of its legs, and kicks like an horfe, or runs againft its pur- 

 luer, beats him down, and treads him to the ground. The manner of 

 going of this animal is not lefs extraordinary than its appearance, Inftead 

 of going dire<5lly forward, it feems to kick up behind with one leg, and then, 

 making a bound onward with the other, it goes with fuch prodigious velo- 

 city, that the fwifteft racer would be left far behind. Swallows every thing 

 that comes within the capacity of its gullet. It is faid, that the pafiage of 

 the food is performed fo Ipeedily, that fometimes the eggs it has fwaliowed 

 whole pafs unbroken : the alimentary canal of this animal, as was ob- , 

 ferved above, is extremely fhort; and it may happen that many kinds of 

 food are indigeftible in its ftomach, as wheat or currants are to man, when 

 fwaliowed whole. 



The caflbwary 's eggs are of a grey afh colour, inclining to green j not 

 fo large nor fo round as thofe of the ofirich. They are marked with a 

 number of litde tubercles of a deep green, and the (hell is not very'thicl:. 

 The largeft ofthefe is found to be fifteen inches round one way, and 

 about twelve the other. The fouthcrn parts of the Indies feem to be the 

 natural climate of the caflbwary. His domain, if we may fo call it, be- 

 gins where that of the oftrich terminates. The latter has never been 

 found beyond the Ganges; while the caflTowary is never fcen nearer than 

 the iflands of Banda, Sumatra, Java, the Molucca Iflands, and the cor- 

 yefponding parts of the continent. Yet even there is rare. 



Part IV. No. z2. A a ' THE 



