STEUTHIONES. 



CASSOWARIES: THE MOOEUK. 



The first specimen of the species of cassowary (the moo- 

 ruli) to which this paper has reference was received in the 

 Zoological Society's Gardens on May 17, 1857, and subse- 

 quently other specimens have been added to the collection. 

 In 1858 a pair of these birds was obtained, in 1864 they 

 bred and two fine young birds were reared. The female 

 lays three or four eggs of a very beautiful pea-green colour, 

 and the male (as is the case with all the members of the 

 Strathiones) performs the task of incubation, a very serioiis 

 matter with him, considering that he must be constantly, 

 on duty for seven weeks, at the end of which period the 

 young are hatched, and very prettily-striped chicks are 

 the young cassowaries. They are attended and brooded 

 by the male bird only, the female not being allowed to 

 approach them, nor does she appear to exhibit any care or 

 anxiety about them. 



There are two facts with regard to the Struthiones of 

 very peculiar interest. The first is, that the ostriches of 

 Africa and America lay white eggs, while the emus and 

 cassowaries of the Indian Archipelago and Australia lay 

 green eggs ; the second is the peculiarity in the struc- 

 ture of the feathers in each case. For instance, in all 

 the known species that lay green eggs two distinct 

 feathers grow from one quill, while the species that produce 

 white eggs have only a single plume on each quill. Now 



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