5^4 



FLIGHTLESS BIRDS. 



skin of the head and neck, coupled with tlie glossy sheen of the blue-black plumage, 

 cassowaries are perhaps the handsomest of all the Ratitcu. The largest species of 

 all and the one in which the hom-coloured helmet attains the greatest development, 

 is the Australian cassowary, which, when erect, stands considerably over five feet 

 in height. Among its distinctive features is the line cobalt-blue tint of the throat 

 and fore-neck, and the red terminal flaps of the deeply divided wattle ; the Ceram 



AUSTRALIAN CASSOWABY. 



species having the throat and fore -neck dull purple. Of the species without 

 wattles, Bennett's cassowary — the muruk of the natives — has the neck entirely 

 blue ; ^vhile in Westermann's cassowary the fore-part of the neck is blue and the 

 hinder portion red ; the reverse of this characterising the painted-necked species. 

 Nestlings have the plumage mottled, while at a later stage the colour is tawny. 



