432 NATURAL HISTORY. 



for the flesh is not over-palatable, and only the hind-quarters are ever 

 eaten. The cassowaries, on the other hand, are inhabitants of the forests. 

 They, too', arc large birds, one occurring in Australia, the other nine in 

 New Guinea, Ceram, and the adjacent islands. The most striking feature 

 in these birds is the helmet or crest on the top of the head, which does not 

 attain its full development until the fourth or fifth year. In both emus 

 and cassowaries the wings are much more rudimentary than they are in 

 the true ostriches. 



A few extinct birds demand a moment's attention. First comes the 

 moa of New Zealand, which must have been exterminated since that island 

 was peopled by the Polynesian Maori. Indeed, there is some evidence to 

 show that individuals were alive as late as the last half of the last century. 

 A few feathers, a few bits of dried skin and muscles, are all that we now 

 know of these forms, except the immense numbers of bones that exist. 

 From these remains some dozen or fifteen species have been indicated ; the 

 largest, with truly elephantine legs, reaching up to a height of twelve or 

 fourteen feet. Their eggs, too, have been found, — enormous objects, dark 

 green in color, oval in shape, with a length of ten inches and a breadth of 

 seven. 



About 1850 some natives came from Madagascar to Mauritius to buy 

 rum, and wonderful were the receptacles they brought with them to con- 

 tain the liquor. They were nothing but the egg-shells of some unknown 

 bird of enormous size; for each egg would hold about two gallons. A 

 search was made, and remains of three species have been brought to light. 

 ^Kjiioniis is the name which has been given to them, but the size of the 

 largest did not much exceed that of the ostrich, although the egg was six 

 times the size of that of the African bird. In all probability these forms 

 are extinct. It may be that the last was killed some two hundred 

 years ago. 



Nearly as strange as any of the forms mentioned are the peculiar wing- 

 less kiwis of New Zealand, small nocturnal birds (the largest no larger than 

 a turkey) whi«h Iced upon the gigantic earthworms of that country. 

 They arc dull brown or gray colored forms with long, pointed beaks. 

 Their eggs are enormous in proportion to the size of the bird, and will 

 weigh aboul ;i quarter as much as the bird itself. 



One more group of forms, and we are done with the allies of the 

 ostriches. These tonus arc the tinamous and similar birds, the fifty 

 species of which range from Central America south to Patagonia. The 

 largest species, occurring in Buenos Ayres, is a little larger than a par- 

 tridge, and is so grouse-like in its appearance and habits that it has won 

 for itself the common name perdiz grande, large partridge. It lives in 



