THE EMEU. 195 



slightly keeled along its middle, and rounded at the 

 point ; large nostrils, covered by a membrane and open- 

 ing above on the middle of the bill ; a head unsur- 

 mounted by a bony crest, and covered with feathers 

 up to a certain age ; a naked throat without wattles ; 

 powerful legs of considerable length, fleshy and fea- 

 thered down to the joint, naked and reticulated below 

 it; three toes directed forwards, the two lateral ones 

 equal in length, and the posterior wholly wanting ; the 

 claws of all the toes nearly equal ; and no true quill- 

 feathers either to the wings or tail. It is consequently 

 distinguished from the African Ostrich by the number 

 of its toes ; from it and the Rhea by the trifling de- 

 velopement of its wings, and the total want of plumage 

 to the wings and tail ; and from the Cassowary by the 

 absence of crest, wattles, and quills, the depression of 

 its bill, the position of its nostrils, and the equality of 

 its claws. 



In size and bulk the Emeu is exceeded by the African 

 Ostrich alone. It is stated by travellers to attain a 

 height of more than seven feet, and its average measure- 

 ment in captivity may be estimated at between five and 

 six. In form it closely resembles the Ostrich, but is 

 lower on the legs, shorter in the neck, and of a more 

 thickset and clumsy make. At a distance its feathers 

 have more of the appearance of hair than of plumage, 

 their barbs being all loose and separate. As in the 

 other Ostriches they take their origin by pairs from, 

 the same shaft. Their general colour is a dull brown 

 mottled with dirty gray, the latter prevailing more par- 

 ticularly on the under surface of the bird. On the head 

 and neck they become gradually shorter, assume still 

 more completely the appearance of hairs, and are so 

 thinly scattered over the fore part of the throat and 

 around the ears, that the skin, which is of a purplish 



