CASSOWARY. 617 



half from the bill to the claw. The Dutch compare the bulk 

 of these birds to that of a sheep. From the shortness of the 

 legs and neck, they are not so tall as the ostrich ; but the 

 body has a more heavy and clumsy appearance to the eye. The 

 most remarkable trait in the appearance of these birds, is a sort of 

 helmet upon the head, which reaches from the base of the bill to 

 the crown : it is nearly three inches in height, and, at the root, 

 is three in thickness. The middle of the upper eyelid is furnished 

 with a row of black hairs, which gives the animal a kind of wild 

 aspect, that the large aperture of the beak renders still more 

 tierce and menacing. The head and upper part of the neck are 

 almost naked, being only here and there interspersed with blackish 

 hairs, that partially cover a blue wrinkled skin. The feathers that 

 cover the body of the cassowary, as well as those for flight, are 

 all of one kind, and of the same blackish colour. They are ge- 

 nerally double, having two shafts that grow from one short trunk, 

 which is fixed in the skin. The small fibres of which the vanes 

 are composed have so little adhesion to each other, that the bird, 

 when viewed at a distance, seems clothed with hair rather than 

 with feathers. The wings of the cassowary are still shorter than 

 those of the ostrich, and, by consequence, still more unfit for fly- 

 ing. They are furnished each with four hard.pointed feathers, 

 resembling darts, of which the longest, which is eleven inches, is 

 a quarter of an inch thick in the root. Its feet are also armed 

 with large black claws, which give the animal an appearance of 

 being formed for hostility. But, though supplied with weapons 

 that might render it very formidable to the rest of the animal 

 world, the cassowary leads a peaceable and inoffensive life. It 

 never attacks others ; and nothing short of necessity will make it 

 even defend itself. When it does defend itself, it kicks like a 

 horse, and pushes down its assailant by running against him, and 

 grunting like a swine. 



The movements of the cassowary, when travelling, are awk- 

 ward, and apparently heavy. It seems to give a kind of kick 

 backward for every hop it makes forward ; but, so much is swift- 

 ness the prerogative of birds, that the cassowary, which is among 

 the dullest of the tribe, will outrun the fleetest steed. It is dis- 

 tinguished by the same voracity which characterises the rhea and 

 ostrich. It swallows every substance that is offered to it, that is 

 not too large for the circumference of its throat ; and possesses the 



