222 THE TOWER MENAGERIE. 
nous scale; by the muscular plumpness of their bodies, 
and especially of their legs; by the shortness of their 
wings, and the diminution of strength in their pectoral 
muscles; and by the thickness and strength of their 
anterior toes, generally three in number, united at 
the base alone by a connecting membrane, and rough- 
ened beneath. ‘These characters conjoined sufficiently 
indicate that their proper place of abode is the surface 
of the earth, on which they are enabled to run with a 
greater or less degree of speed; and that the air, in 
which they are incapable of elevating themselves to any 
considerable height, or of propelling their flight with 
more than moderate swiftness, and into which some of 
them cannot even raise themselves at all, is an uncon- 
genial element to which they can seldom resort. They 
furnish the principal and most useful breeds of our 
domestic poultry, and stock our farm-yards with their 
most valuable inhabitants. 
The distinctive generic characters of the New Holland 
Emeu, which forms part of the Ostrich family, and is, 
with the sole exception of the Ostrich, the largest bird 
known to exist, consist in the flattening of its bill from 
above downwards, instead of from side to side; in the 
absence of the bony process which crests the head of the 
Cassowary, of the wattles which depend from his neck, 
and of the long spurlike shafts which arm his wings; 
and in the equal, or nearly equal, length of all his claws. 
The Emeus, however, agree with the Cassowaries in the 
number of their toes, three on each foot, all of them 
directed forwards and extremely thick and short, the 
posterior toe, which is common to most of the Order, 
being in them entirely wanting; in the excessive short- 
