110 HON. W. ROTHSCHILD ON THE GENUS CASUARIUS. 
is shorter than in most other Ratite, very robust, and covered in front with hexagonal 
scutes, and transverse ones near the toes. Toes three, the two outer ones with obtuse, 
curved, and short claws; the inner toe with a long, straight, powerful, pointed claw, 
which is a dangerous weapon. The body is covered with stiff, hair-like feathers, in 
which the after-shaft is as long as the principal shaft. The old birds are black, the 
young ones brown, the nestling, when hatched, is striped longitudinally above. 
The eggs are about six to eight in number, with a strong and very coarsely granulated 
surface. When fresh they are evidently all of a light green colour, but when exposed 
to the light they become first more bluish, then greyish, and at last almost cream- 
coloured. The male alone incubates. 
Herr Schalow (Journ. f. Orn. 1894) has attempted to make a key to distinguish the 
eggs of the various species; but his key is a total failure and misleading, being 
principally based on the colour, which is the same in all, and on the transparency of the 
shell, which is not specifically different. 
All Cassowaries are inhabitants of forests, while the rest of the large living Palwo- 
gnathe (or Ratite) are denizens of steppes and deserts. ‘Their food seems to consist of 
all sorts of vegetable matter and fruits ; but they also pick up insects and any creeping 
thing that comes in their way. In captivity, at least, they kill and devour chicks and 
small birds when they come across them. ‘They also, like Ostriches, Rheas, and others, 
swallow quantities of stones and gravel to assist digestion. ‘They are entirely diurnal, 
sleeping from sunset till morning. 
The voice of the Cassowaries is a curious sort of snorting, grunting, and bellowing, 
usually not very loud, and differing according to the species. 
Their temper is generally sullen and treacherous, and they are extremely pugnacious, 
eyen the different sexes often fighting at other seasons than the breeding-season. 
Exceptions are rather rare, but there is an adult Cassowary, now in the Society’s Gardens, 
which is quite tame, and was always so, since I had him; while another young bird used 
to follow the keeper who fed him like a dog when I had him in Tring, but has since 
become somewhat shy. 
It seems that the Dutch navigators in 1596 were the first Europeans who became 
acquainted with the Cassowary, at least there does not appear to be any indication 
that the Portuguese, who visited the East-Indian Archipelago long before, came across 
the bird. For more than two and a half centuries there was no certainty as to 
the existence of more than one species, but in 1854 Mr. Thomas Wall procured a 
specimen of Casuarius casuarius australis near Cape York, which was described by his 
brother, for the first time, in the ‘ Illustrated Sydney Herald’; but the description 
(made from memory) is as bad as it can be. In 1857 Gould described the New Britain 
Cassowary, in 186) Blyth and Sclater described two new species, and since then 
the described forms have constantly been increasing, till they now number 20. The 
best general accounts are those by Salvadori in his monograph of the genus in the 
