HON. W. ROTHSCHILD ON THE GENUS CASUARIUS., 115 
Young (three-fifths grown). Plumage yellowish or rufous brown mixed with black. 
Fore-neck dull indigo-blue ; head and occiput pale dull blue; hind-neck dull orange- 
red, naked lower sides of neck blue, posteriorly mixed livid purple and dull red. 
Young (full-grown). Plumage black, mixed with a few rufous feathers. Fore-neck 
indigo-blue; head and occiput pale blue ; hind-neck scarlet, naked lower sides of neck 
blue anteriorly, passing through plum-purple to scarlet posteriorly. 
Chick. Head and neck rufous, paler below; three broad stripes on back, one 
irregular stripe on each side reaching from the anus to the wing, and two other lateral 
stripes extending to the thighs, the last two broken up into irregular blotches. 
Hab. Ceram. 
As shown in the synonymy, the Ceram Cassowary is the oldest known member of the 
genus. In the year 1595 a number of merchants in Amsterdam formed a company, 
and sent out four vessels to open communication with the Hastern Archipelago and to 
bring home spices and other valuable merchandise. In December 1596 the ships were 
anchored at Sydayo, in Java, and it was there that Jan Jacobsz Schellinger, the skipper 
of the ship ‘ Amsterdam,’ was presented with a Cassowary, which had been brought to 
Jaya from Banda Island. ‘This was a day or two before Schellinger was murdered by 
the chief of Sydayo. Although the ship ‘Amsterdam’ was left and burnt, the 
wonderful “ large fowl” was brought on board of one of the other vessels and was 
landed alive at Amsterdam in 1597. It was at first exhibited to the public for some 
months, then came into the hands of Count George Everard Solms, of s’Gravenhage, 
who kept it for a long time at the Hague, and afterwards presented it to the Elector, 
Prince Ernestus of Cologne, who, again, subsequently gave it to the Emperor Rudolphus 
the Second. Count Solms, before parting with the bird, had an excellent coloured 
picture made of it, from which the very good figure in Clusius, representing the bird, 
one of its feathers, and an egg, was taken. ‘This figure has been copied into several 
other works. A wretched figure of the same bird was also published in the diary of 
the long and dangerous voyage during which it was first observed by Europeans, and 
this figure is reproduced by Aldrovandus. In 1666 Olearius, in his somewhat 
despicable work ‘ Die Gottorffische Kunstkammer,’ assures us that one had been kept 
alive at Gottorff in Schleswig ; but he does not say how it was procured. Olearius’s 
description is very amusing, but short and not very accurate. Valentyn (1726) seems to 
have been the first to give the actua] home of this bird, which is Ceram. He says that 
some Dutchmen found it sitting on three eggs on that island as long ago as 1660. 
Valentyn also says that the Cassowary occurring in Aru differs from that of Ceram. 
Other writers have stated Sumatra, Ceylon, and all sorts of places to be inhabited by 
Cassowaries, and even Linnzus said: ‘‘ Habitat in Asia, Sumatra, Molucca, Banda.” 
Up to the present day erroneous statements respecting the home of Caswarius casuarius 
have often been made, but it is evident that of all the Moluccan islands only Ceram is 
inhabited by a Cassowary. 
