518 DR. p. L. SCLATER ON BENNETt's CASSOWARY. [DcC. 8, 



are two more sternal ribs in a rudimentary condition. There are 

 seventeen vertebrse fused together, five of which must be supposed 

 removed from the front part and two from behind, thus leaving ten 

 proper sacral vertebrae. 



In small birds and in birds of the higher types with short pelves, 

 the number of true sacral vertebrae will be only about seven on an 

 average — a common number amongst the large herbivorous Mam- 

 malia. 



As I have only touched upon the points of interest in this skeleton, 

 when I have acquired a fuller knowledge of it and of its congeners, 

 and of the bearings and relations of the feathered tribes generally, 

 I hope to take it up again. Certainly amongst living birds there 

 is not one possessing characters of higher interest ; none that 1 am 

 acquainted with come nearer, in certain important points, to the 

 Lizard ; and there are parts of its organization which make it very 

 probable that it is one of the nearest living relatives of the marvel- 

 lous Archeopteryx* . 



2. Note on the Breeding of Bennett's Cassowary in the 

 Society's Gardens. By P. L. Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., 

 F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. 



(Plate XLII.) 



In some notes on the method of incubation of the Struthious 

 birds read before the Society iu June lastf, I mentioned the fact of 

 our pair of the Mooruk or Bennett's Cassowary (Casuarius bennettii), 

 received from Dr. Bennett in 1858, having again commenced breed- 

 ing in the previous month. The female began to lay in the middle 

 of the mouth of March, and deposited eggs at intervals of about 

 eight days. The male bird commenced the duty of incubation on 

 the 2.5th of the month, at which time five eggs had been deposited. 

 One other egg was subsequently laid by the female. On the 1 7th 

 of June, after an incubation of fifty-two days, a single young bird 

 was produced, which, however, was in a very weak state, and only 

 lived about twelve hours. 



The accompanying drawing by Mr. "Wolf will serve to record the 

 external appearance of this interesting chick, which is, I believe, the 

 only existing example of a young bird of any species of Cassowary 

 bred in Europe. 



I may remark that this is the fourth year in which our female 

 Mooruk has attempted to breed. In April 1860 three eggs were 

 laid without intercourse with the male bird, and of course unfruitful. 

 In 1861 four unproductive eggs were likewise deposited, although 

 frequent copulation had taken place between her and a male Common 



* The cup-and-ball joints in the dorsal region of many water-birds and of the 

 Parrots must be looked upon as*a general reptilian character; so also the single 

 head of the " os quadratum" in the Ostriches. The very simple palatines of the 

 latter birds and of the Palamedea, the very long free toes and the simple ribs of 

 the Screamer, all these are more properly lacerlian. 



•f See antea, p. 233 et seq. 



