116 EMU OR CASSOWARY. 



and it is on record, that F. Firmius, who reigned in 

 Egypt in the third century, was drawn in a chariot 

 by Ostriches. Their strength of leg renders them 

 sometimes very mischievous ; and at a farm in the 

 Cape of Good Hope, the owner was obliged to kill a 

 favourite tame one, which was not satisfied with 

 swallowing chickens whole, and trampling hens to 

 death, in order to tear them in pieces, but at last 

 took to trampling even sheep to death. 



The Cassowary and Emu in many respects re- 

 semble the Ostrich, differing from him chiefly in the 

 plumage, which in the former, partakes more of the 

 nature of hair or bristles, than of feathers. They are 

 lively birds, and frisk and dance away when roused, 

 when they look very like a woolly cushion, on the top 

 of two poles. Like the Ostrich, they are stupid, and 

 like it, also run with amazing swiftness; so much so, 

 that it is very difficult to run them down, unless by 

 the swiftest dogs, and by them only in an open 

 country. They defend themselves by kicking with 

 their powerful legs, and the blow is quite sufficient to 

 stun a dog, or even at times to fracture a man's leg; 

 accordingly, dogs trained for hunting them, always 

 approach the running bird, not immediately in its 

 rear, but a little on one side, so as to turn and seize 

 it by the body. 



In the Emu of New Holland, there is also a very 

 curious internal bag, or pouch, connected with the 

 windpipe, but having no communication with the 

 other air-cells; its use is not exactly known, but it 

 has been ingeniously conjectured, that in a country 

 like New Holland, parts of which are particularly 

 exposed to sudden floods, the sandy plains in the 



