4 
CASUARII 
The wing is quite rudimentary; the remiges, five or six in number, are black, long, cylindrical 
and rigid shafts, like porcupine spines, without any indication of webs; two or three are 
attached to the manus and can be considered as primaries, the others being secondaries ; when 
six of these degenerate remiges are present, the first is far the smallest; an ala spuria is wanting; 
the other wing feathers are not distinguishable from the general plumage; a blunt claw is 
oiten present, not always. Rectrices are not apparent, but generally the posterior body feathers 
are more elongated and can feign a sort of pendent tail. The tibiz are feathered, being naked 
only on their very extreme distal part. The metatarsi, which are shorter than in most other 
flightless Palcognatha, are very robust and covered with variously shaped scutes, with large 
hexagonal ones on their greater part, with small dense roundish seales at the proximal end, 
with large transverse scutes below in front near the toes. The toes are three in number, of 
which the middle one is the longest, the inner one the smallest; they are covered with large 
transverse scutes; the claws are robust, the middle and outer ones curved, the inner of an 
unusual considerable length, straitgh, pointed, and constituting a powerful and dangerous 
weapon. The body is clothed with stiff hair-like feathers, in which the aftershaft is as long as 
the main shaft. Adult birds have an entirely black plumage, young ones are brown, nestlings 
when hatched are more or less pale brown with longitudinal black stripes. 
According to Pycraft, the pterylosis shows an apterion spinale which sometimes is 
wanting, a more or less well-marked apterion mesogastrai including the sternal callosity and 
extending backwards to within a short distance of the cloacal aperture, and an apterion trunci 
laterale principally represented by the naked under surface of the wing, An oil gland is wanting. 
The duodenum is wide and is provided with a diverticulum into which pancreatic and 
hepatic ducts open; the ceca are relatively short and of a uniform thickness throughout; the 
rectum is short and nearly straight. The right lobe of the liver is larger than the left; a spigelian 
lobe is present; there is a gall bladder, The lower end of the trachea is slightly dilated above 
the bronchi and the last few tracheal rings are incomplet behind, the space left between them 
being continuous with a membrana tympaniformis; there is neither pessulus nor intrinsic 
muscles; the outer vocal cord is well-developed. According to the high degree of degeneration 
of the fore-limb, the wing musculature is very reduced; the following points can be marked out : 
both rhomboidet are present, but they arise from ribs; the biceps originates only from the 
coracoid; the coraco-brachialis internus is entirely tendinous ; the subscapularis arises only from 
the scapula. In the thigh the semitendinosus and its accessory are well-developed, the femoro- 
caudal is slender, its accessory 1s enormous in size, the ambiens, uf this muscle is present, is 
quite reduced and impertect, Casuarius, as Dromaius, possesses a strongly developed dermo- 
dorsalis. As in the Dromaius skull, to which that of Casvarius is very alike in essential 
characters, the vomer is of considerable length, extending forwards the distal extremity of the 
parasphenoidal rostrum, but it is only slightly expanded between the maxillo-palatines; the 
palatines are unfenestrated and anchylosed with the pterygoids and vomer; the mesethmoid, 
nasals, and more or less of frontals contribute to form the prominent casque. The sternum is 
relatively elongated and posteriorly pointed, Rudimentary clavicles are said to be present, In 
the pelvis, the pectineal process is not very important, the interobturator process is well-marked 
but do not reach the pubis, the pubis‘and the ischium are united at their distal extremity only 
by cartilage. Only one carpal, the radial, is distinguishable ; the three metacarpals are wholly 
