384 CASSOWARY. 



internally, in having no gizzard; and the liver being so small, as not 

 to exceed that of a Blackbird, yet the gall-bladder was large, and 

 distended with bile ; the crop contained at least six or seven pounds 

 of grass, flowers, a few berries, and seeds ; the intestinal canal six 

 yards long; the heart and lungs separated by a diaphragm, and bore 

 a tolerable proportion to the size of the bird.* 



Inhabits New-Holland, where it is not uncommon, being fre- 

 quently seen by our settlers, but is exceedingly shy, and runs so 

 swiftly, that a greyhound can scarcely overtake it. The flesh is said 

 to be well relished, tasting not unlike young tender beef.f 



Mr. Tench, in his Narrative of Botany Bai/,% says, the weight 

 is seventy pounds, and the length seven feet two inches ; and that 

 the foot differed from the Ostrich in forming a triangle instead of 

 being cloven. 



3— VAN DIEMENS CASSOWARY.— Pl. cxxxviii. 



Casoare de la nouvelle Hollande, Voy. aux Terr. Austr. i. 4G7. pl. 36. & 41. 



THIS bird has been thought by some to be the same with the 

 New-Holland Cassowary, or last described, but by no means answers 

 to the description of that bird. To what size it arrives when full 

 grown is not said, but certainly not so large as the New-Holland 

 Species : we have met with two specimens alive in a London exhi- 

 bition, which appeared to exceed the bulk of a large Bustard, 

 though giving the idea of a still bigger bird, owing to the fullness 

 of the plumage : the bill is broad at the gape, lessening by degrees 

 to the point, where it is a trifle bent ; the nostrils placed near the 

 edge, about the middle; colour dusky blue; the space round the 

 eyes and some part of the neck nearly bare, and of the same colour 



* Sir E. Home's description of the solvent glands and gizzards of this and the Common 

 Species may be read with advantage in Phil. Trans, for 1813, p. 77. &c. 

 t White's Voy. + p. 123. 



