CASSOWARIES. 393 



Archipelago, the Moluccas, Java, and Sumatra. It is especially 

 plentiful in the vast forests of the island of Ceylon. The first bird 

 of this species which was seen in Europe was brought from Java 

 by the Dutch in 1597. It is a stupid, quarrelsome, and gluttonous 

 creature, feeding on plants, fruits, and sometimes small animals. 

 Possessed of considerable strength, and being wild and fierce 

 in nature, its anger cannot be provoked without danger ; for, 

 although its wings are short, each is furnished with five pointed 

 spines, the middle one of which is a foot long, and which are 

 employed with adroitness as weapons of defence. Its habitual 

 cry consists of a low grumbling, which, when the bird is angry, 

 is changed into a sonorous humming noise, not unlike the sound 

 of carriage- wheels or of distant thunder. 



The menagerie of the Museum of Natural History at Paris was 

 in possession of a Cassowary which devoured everything that was 

 given it bread, fruit, vegetables, &c., and drank seven or eight 

 pints of water daily. In the London and the Paris Zoological 

 Gardens there are generally several to be seen. 



The Cassowary runs very swiftly, and in a way quite peculiar, 

 for it kicks up its heels at every step. They live in pairs, 

 and during the breeding season the male bird shows a degree of 

 violence which renders him very formidable. The female lays 

 three or four eggs in the dust, and sits on them alone for about a 

 month. The young birds, when first hatched, are covered with a 

 light down, and are without the helmet, which it acquires as it 

 approaches maturity. 



The wild nature of these birds renders them but little fitted for 

 domestication : this is a fact not much to be deplored, as their 

 flesh is of an unpleasant flavour, and in no other respect than 

 as food could they be of any service to us. 



The EMU, or AUSTRALIAN CASSOWARY (Dromiceius australis), 

 Fig. 156, is distinguished from the last-named bird by its larger 

 size, and also by the absence of the helmet, the caruncles, and the 

 pointed spines on the wings. It was formerly common in the 

 great forests of the Eucalyptus, in Australia, but the clearings 

 of the colonists have now driven it back beyond the Blue Moun- 

 tains. Being very powerful, it offers a stout resistance to dogs, 

 with w r hich it is hunted. It can be tamed much more easily 



