<*»F BIRDS, 
169 
before and yellow behind. The colour of the eye is a 
bright yellow, and the globe being near an inch and a 
half in diameter, renders the countenance equally singu- 
lar and formidable. The bill is of a greyish brown; the 
neck of violet colour inclining to slate, and the claws 
black without and white within. It may also be observ- 
ed, that about the middle of the neck there are two pro- 
cesses, formed by the skin, somewhat resembling the 
gills of a cock, but that they are blue as well as red. 
To sum up the whole, it has been observed that the 
cassowary unites in itself the head of a warrior, the eye 
of a lion; the defence of a porcupine, and the swiftness 
of courser. — Its mode of running is very singular; for 
instead of going directly forward, it seems to kick up 
behind with one leg, and then, makes a bound with the 
other. It is a native of the East indies, in which part 
of the world it is only to be found. 
Do do. (Pi. 24.) This creature strikes the imagination 
as one of the most unwieldy and inactive in nature. Its 
round and massive body is barely supported upon two 
short thick legs, like pillars! while its neck and head rise 
from it in a manner truly grotesque. The bill is of an 
extraordinary length, of a bluish white colour, and re- 
sembling, in its formation, two pointed spoons laid toge- 
ther by the backs. From all this results a stupid and 
voracious aspect, still further increased by a border of 
feathers round the beak, which forms a sort of hood, 
and completes this picture of stupid deformity. 
The dodo seems weighed down by its own heaviness, 
and has scarcely strength to urge itself forward. Its 
wings, covered with soft ash-coloured feathers, are too 
short to assist it in flying; its tail, consisting of a few 
curled feathers, is displaced and disproportionate, and its 
legs are too short for running: in a word, it seems among 
the feathered race what the sloth is among quadrupeds, 
an unresisting creature, equal y incapable of flight or 
defence. It is a native of the Isle of France; and the 
Dutch, who first discovered it there, called it, in their 
language, the nauseous bird, as well from its disgusting 
figure, as from the bad taste of its flesh*, 
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