THE AUSTRALIAN CASSOWARY 



Ostrich, and was adopted for the Australian bird by the officers 

 who examined the first bird shot, within half a mile of the 

 present Sydney Railway Station. The name caught the popular 

 ear, and has held its own ever since. 



The Tasmanian bird D. diemenensis became extinct about 

 1860. There are two skins in the British Museum, collected in 

 1845, by Ronald Gunn. Its breast is much lighter in colour than 

 the mainland species. 



The Australian Cassowary. 



Casuaritis australis. 



A shj bird, living in the dense brush-covered coastal districts of 

 North Queensland. Adult plumage black and lustrous, the feathers being 

 unusually stiff. The sides of the head and the upper part of the back of 

 the neck are bare, and of a light greenish blue; the lower part of the 

 back of the neck, also bare, is bright scarlet; the chin and the front of 

 the neck are deep blue; the sides of the neck below have intermingled 

 blue and red. The two large wattles on the fore-neck are mottled with 

 pinkish-red. The bare skin of the neck bears some short stiff hairs. The 

 helmet or casque grows to a considerable size, and in old birds is very 

 large. It serves to protect the head of the bird when, with body 

 depressed and neck bent forwards, it dashes through the thick under- 

 growth in the jungle which forms its home. The sexes are very similar 

 in plumage when adult. 



The young are of a yellowish-buff colour, with three broad black 

 stripes down the back, and three other irregular black stripes on each 

 side. These markings do not survive beyond the first year. In the second 

 and third years the plumage is yellowish brown; and it is only after the 

 third year that the black colour gradually appears. 



The eggs, from three to six in the .clutch, are of a delicate pale 

 green colour, which easily fades. They measure on the average about 

 5.55 X 3.70 inches. They are granulated like those of the Emu. 



The Cassowary is too expensive and too uncertain in temper 

 to be frequently kept as a pet. IMr. C. H. Hodges, when 

 headmaster of the Townsville Grammar School, however, kept 

 one for two years. Black Prince, as he was called, had been 

 caught young, and, though he grew to stand over five feet 

 without his stockings, he did not show any malice in his 

 disposition, even to strangers. He would stroll about the 

 grounds with his master's arm around his neck, and merely 

 take the opportunity to poke his head into his master's pocket 

 where he expected, not without warrant, to find something to 

 his advantage. For sleeping-place a cage was provided in a 



