THE CASSOWARY. 57 



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 to- 

 wards 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 inspire some 

 degree of terror. It is bare of feathers, and is in 

 a manner 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 probable 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 eye 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 

 looks pretty much like an eye-brow. The lower 

 eye-lid, which is the largest of the two, is furnish- 

 ed also with plenty of black hair. The hole of 

 the ear is very large and open, being only cover- 

 ed with small black feathers. The sides of the 



