40 HISTORY OF 



fibres like down j so that nothing appears except the ends, whic-h 

 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 aj)- 

 pears 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 the 

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

 the wings ai'e adorned with five prickles, of different lengths and 

 thickness, which bend like a bow ; those 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 ex- 

 tremity ; 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 an helmet of horny substance, that 

 covers it from the root of the bill to near half the head back- 

 wards. This helmet is black before and yellow behind. Its 

 substance is verj* hard, being formed by the elevation of the bone 

 of the skull ; and it consists of several plates, one over another, 

 iike the horn of an ox. Some have supposed that this was shed 

 every year with the feathers ; but the most probable opinion is, 

 thut it only oxfoliates 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 jellow, 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 

 nair, which look pretty much like an eye-brow. T'he 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 animal% 



