1-75 White, Notes on the Cassowary'. [,sf"iaii. 



every morning when he was eating his breakfast always greeted me 

 with a " Boom " or two, and now he is silent. The Cassowaries by 

 the middle of this month had become energetic, and were to be seen 

 almost anywhere. But I strongly suspect that they follow me. 

 Their feeding grounds are far larger than I thought, June being so 

 wet that the birds made a sort of a pad going for food. When one 

 gets used to it he can follow them everywhere. I followed one bird 

 about all day, and he was fully a mile away from his camping- 

 ground at one time. They have regular, well-marked tracks going 

 over foodless ridges or crossing creeks and dry gullies to favourite 

 feeding-grounds . 



Food this month consisted of the bright red berries of a palm 

 {Archontophcenix alexandrce, Wendl.), blue quondong {ElcFocarpus 

 grandis, F. v. M.), red plum (species of Eugenia), a long-stoned plum 

 (Cryptocarya, sp.). a yellow fruit (Po/ya/Z/na, sp.), scrub apple (? Pygeum 

 turnerianum, Bailey), seed of zamia palm (Macrozamia denisonii, 

 F. V. M.), &c. 



August. — If I had not heard, on good authority, of the finding of 

 one Cassowary's egg on Sunday (30th July), I would have thought 

 that the birds had finished laying. Last month I kept two pairs of 

 birds under observation as well as I was able. The females were to 

 be seen feeding by themselves at 8 a.m., 10.30 a.m., and 4 p.m. 

 Though the males were not far off, I never saw them with their 

 mates, but observed tracks of the two on a sand-bank. No young 

 birds have been seen yet. The natives capture some every year here 

 with their dogs. The more I study the food question of the Casso- 

 wary the more convinced I become that the bird swallows anything 

 except what is actually nauseous, and there are a few fruits of that 

 order here. I am in good country now, only rather far from camp ; 

 so I am going to camp out in the scrub, to be near the birds for a 

 while. On 2nd August, after three weeks' search, I found clutch 

 No. 2, containing four eggs. Will leave it till 6th August before 

 looking again. I looked all round the spot a week before, and never 

 saw the nest. I waited until the evening of 5th August, and then 

 took the four eggs from the ground. There were stains underneath 

 them, and when 1 blew them 1 found that they were slightly incubated. 

 I have had the clutch of three eggs (No. i) photographed in the 

 natural position. (See Plate XXI.) 



This is a very important month for the Cassowaries, as the 

 quondongs, which form their chief article of food, finish. In the 

 first half of this month there were great quantities of Cassowary food 

 on the ground, but the weather kept dry, which caused an earlier 

 ripening of the fruits. This affected the birds, and at the end of the 

 month the males rarely left the vicinity of a good food tree, if on 

 their run. They seemed to be watching over the tree, so that their 

 mates should have plenty to eat. They were also more wary than 

 usual, seldom uttering a sound unless surprised. This alteration 

 in their habits was a great disadvantage to me, as it was by noting 

 the different intonations of the sounds made that I could tell when 

 I was in the vicinity of their nests. The male follows one about, 

 and from time to time utters a low " Boom," or, if one is near the 

 nest, a quick " Heugh heugh heugh." Sometimes he tries to lead 

 one away by " booming " in a new quarter. If successful he 

 suddenly stops and goes back to his sentry-ground again. 



The Cassowary utters no other sounds save the mate call and the 



