■12 HISTOUY OF 



The same degree of voraciousness wliich \vc perceive in the 

 ostrich, obtains as strongly here. The cassowary swallows every 

 thing that comes within the capacity of its gullet. The Dutch 

 assert, that it can devour not only glass, iron, and stones, but 

 even live on 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 the 

 very eggs which it has swallowed whole, pass through it unbro- 

 ken, in the same form they went down. In fact, the alimentary 

 canal of this animal, as was observed above, is extremely short ; 

 and it may happen that many kinds of food are indigestible in its 

 stomach, as wheat or currants are to a man when swallowed 

 whole. 



The cassowary's eggs are of a gray ash colour, inclining to 

 green. They are not so large nor so round as those of the os- 

 trich. They are marked with a number of little tubercles of a 

 deep green, and the shell is not very thick. The largest of these 

 is found to be iifteen inches round one way, and about twelve 

 the other. 



The southern parts of the most eastern Indies seems to be the 

 natural climate of the cassowary. His domain, if we may so call 

 it, begins where that of the ostrich terminates. The latter 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 continent.* 

 Yet even here this animal seems not to have multiplied in any 

 considerable degree, as we find one of the kings of Java making 

 a present of one of these birds to the captain of a Dutch ship, 

 considering it as a very great rarity. The ostrich, that has kept in 

 the desert and unpeopled regions of Africa, is still numerous, 

 and the unrivalled tenant of its own inhospitable climate. But 

 the cassowary, that is the inhabitant of a more peopled and pol- 

 ished region, is growing scarcer every day. It is thus that in 

 proportion as man multiplies, all the savage and noxious animals 



* A species of the Cassowary has been discovered in New Holland : it is 

 seven ieet two inches long ; the crown of its head flat, which with the neck 

 and Body are covered with bristly feathers, varied with brown and grey; 

 its throat, is nal<edish, and of a bluish lead colour ; the feathers of the body 

 ai-c a little incurved at the tip ; its wings are hardly visible ; its legs are of 

 a brown colour, aiui its feet with tlu'ce toes. 



