PAVE EASA AS 3 
fused together ; the index is alone retained, being represented only by a vestigial phalanx, The 
femur is non-pneumatic; the ungual phalanx of the inner toe is very elongated. 
The females are similar to the males but larger. 
Habits and Reproduction. Cassowaries are inhabitants of wooded country, in the 
densest part of which they remain during the day-time. As, in addition, they are wary and timid, 
their habits are badly known, It seems they live usually solitary or in pairs, however small flocks 
can be constituted after breeding by the relatively long union of young birds with parents, 
and possibly also by the combination of two families, Though entirely diurnal, Cassowaries 
leave the cover only in the morning and evening, then they are found where they have their 
favourite feeding and also in the neighbourood of water; these birds are indeed very tond of 
bathing, being poweriul swimmers, which can cross wide rivers, and even, as it would appear, 
narrow sea channels, They run with great swiftness, though rather heavily, and can leap over 
obstacles as much as two meters high, Usually, as Emeus, they rest on the whole metatarsus. 
Cassowaries are very pugnacious, even both sexes fighting each other when it is not the 
breeding season; attacked or only angry, they kick forwards or sideways with their feet, or 
strike with the rigid shafts of their degenerate wings, using also the beak at the same time; the 
powerful claw of their inner toe makes the kicking very dangerous, According to Rothschild who 
has possessed and observed in life most of Cassowaries, « the voice is a curious sort of snorting, 
grunting, and bellowing, usually not very loud, and differmg according to the species »; the 
note most often uttered by the male of the Australian form consists of quickly-repeated croaking 
sounds, audible at a considerable distance. All sort of vegetable matters are eaten, insects and 
crustaceans being also picked up, but fruits seem by much the preferred food, The nest is made 
in the densest part of the cover; it is merely a depression on the soil provided with fallen leaves 
and grass. The eggs, which appear to be from three to eight in number, are of a light green 
colour, with close-set granulations of dark bright green. The cock, it seems, incubates alone, 
though some say that the hen assists him, and he tends the young birds when hatched. The 
disproportion in the sexes pointed out by Rothschild who has found only 6 males among 
150 living Cassowaries secured in the usual manner « by shooting the old male and catching his 
brood of chicks when still in down », is really a very conspicuous thing if the duties of incubation 
are performed solely by the cock and if only one female lays in each nest. 
Range. Molucean and Papuan Sub-Regions, Northern Australia, 
Bibliography. Salvadori, Mem. R. Accad. Se. ‘Vorino (2), Vol. 34, pp. 173-217 (1881); Ornith. 
Papuasia e Molucche. Vol. 3, pp. 473-503 (1882); Cat. Birds Bit. Mus. Vol. 27, pp. 590-602 
(1895); Chalmers Mitchell. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1896, p. 140; Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. 
Hist. Nat. Paris (3), Vol. 8, pp. 263-207 (1896): Beddard, Structure and Classification of Birds, 
pp. 493-528 (1899); Sharpe. Iland-list Birds, Vol. 1, pp 3-4 (1899); Rothschild, Proce. Zool. 
Soc. Lond. 1899, pp. 773 776: Rothschild & Pycraft, Trans. Zoo]. Soc. Lond. Vol. 15, pp. 109- 
290 (1900); Meyer, Ibis (8). Vol. 1, pp. 194-196 (1g0t); Matschie. Journ. f..Ornith. Vol. 49, 
pp. 265-267 (1gor); Rothschild. ibidem. pp. 360 361 (1901); Bull. Brit, Ornith. Club, Vol. 14, 
pp. 38-40 (1904); ibidem, Vol. 15, pp. 32-33 (1905); Novit. Zool. Vol 14, pp. 504-505 (1907); 
van Oort, Notes Mus. Leyden, Vol. 29, pp. 204-206 (1g08); Rothschild, Novit. Zool. Vol. 15, 
p.392(tgo8); Mathews, Birds Australia, Vol. 1, pp. 27-34 (1910); Ogilvie-Grant. Bull. Brit. Ornith. 
Club, Vol. 29. p. 25 (1911); Rothschild, ibidem, pp. 49-52 (1912); Verhandl. V. Intern. Ornith. 
Koner. Berlin, pp. 144-169 (1gt2); Dubois, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, Vol. 38, pp. 104-113 (1913). 
The Casuartide@ consist of a single Genus. 
