THE CASSOWARY. 53 



feathers are of the same kind, and outwardly of the same colour. They 

 are generally double, having two long shafts, which grow out of a 

 short one, which is fixed in the skin. Those that are double, are al- 

 ways of an unequal length ; for some are fourteen inches long, parti- 

 cularly on the rump ; while others are not above three. The beards 

 that adorn the stem or shaft, are, from about halfway to the end, very 

 ong, 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 beards at the end of 

 /be large feathers are perfectly black ; and towards the root, of a grey 

 tawny colour ; shorter, more soft, and throwing out fine fibres like 

 down ; so that nothing appears except the ends, which are hard and 

 black ; because the other part, composed of down, is quite covered. 

 There are feathers on the head and neck ; but they are so short and 

 thinly sown, that the bird's skin appears naked, except towards the 

 hinder part of the head, where they are a little longer. The feathers 

 which adorn the rump are extremely thick, but do not differ, in other 

 respects, from the rest, excepting their being longer. The wings, 

 when they are deprived of their feathers, are but three inches long ; 

 and ihe feathers are like those on other parts of the body. The ends 

 of the wings are adorned with five prickles, of different lengths and 

 thickness, which bend like a bow : these are hollow from the roots to 

 the very points, having only that slight substance within, which all 

 quills are known to have. The longest of these prickles is eleven 

 inches ; and it is a quarter of an inch in diameter at the root, being 

 thicker there than towards the extremity ; the point seems broken off. 

 The part, however, which most distinguishes this animal, is the 

 head : this, though small, like that of an ostrich, does not fail to in- 

 spire some degree of terror. It is bare of feathers, and is in a man 

 ner armed with a helmet of horny substance, that covers it from the 

 root of the bill to near half the head backwards. This helmet is black 

 before and yellow behind. Its substance is very hard, being formed 

 by the elevation of the bone of the skull ; and it consists of several 

 plates, one over another, like the horn of an ox. Some have supposed 

 that this was shed every year with the feathers ; but the most proba- 

 ble opinion is, that it only exfoliates slowly like the beak. To the 

 peculiar oddity of this natural armour may be added the colour of the 

 eyes in this animal, which is a bright yellow, and the globe being 

 above an inch and a half in diameter, gives it an air equally fierce and 

 extraordinary. At the bottom of the upper eye-lid, there is a row of 

 small hairs, over which there is another row of black hair, which look 

 pretty much like an eye-brow. The lower eye-lid, which is the 

 largest of the two, is furnished also with plenty of black hair. The 

 hole of the ear is very large and open, being only covered with small 

 black feathers. The sides of the head, about the eye and ear, being 

 destitute of any covering, are blue, except the middle of the lower 

 eye-lid, which is white. The part of the bill which answers to the 

 upper jaw in other animals, is very hard at the edges above, and tho 

 extremity of it like that of a turkey-cock. The end of the lowct 

 mandible is slightly notched, and the whole is of a grayish brown, ex- 

 cept a green spot on each side. As the beak admits a very wide open 



