THE -CASSOWARY. Sf) 



Singular antipathies. 



iron, and stones, but even burning coals, without 

 testifying the smallest fear, or feeling the least 

 injury. It is said that the passage of the food 

 through its gullet is performed so speedily, that 

 even eggs, which it may have swallowed, will 

 pass through unbroken, and in the same form, 

 they went down. Its eggs, which are not so. 

 Jarge nor so round as those of the ostrich, are of 

 a greyish ash-colour, marked with a number of 

 little tubercles of a deep green; the shell is not 

 very thick, .and the largest measure fifteen inches 

 round one way, and about twelve the other. 



This bird is a native of the hottest parts of the 

 East Indies, and its favourite climate seems lo 

 begin where that of the ostrich terminates; for 

 the letter has never been found beyond the 

 Ganges ; while the cassowary is never seen nearer 

 than the islands of Banda, Sumatra, Java, the 

 Molucca Islands, and the corresponding parts of 

 the continents. 



Two of these animals, a male and female are 

 now (1806) among Mr. Pidcock's collection of 

 animals at Exeter 'Change. They are remark- 

 ably tame, and subsist, as the keeper informs me, 

 principally upon bread. 



