i6 
The Cassowary is also kept in this building during the 
winter, in summer finding quarters in a cage oir the walk 
toward the Monkey House. There are some half dozen species 
of the genus Casuarius, mainly differing in the shape of the 
helmet on the head and the number and arrangement of the 
wattles hanging from the neck ; all are natives of the islands 
of the Malayan Archipelago. They belong to the order of 
struthious birds, with the ostrich, rhea, and apteryx, all of 
which are characterized by great development of the lower 
limbs at the expense of their powers of flight. 
The Common Cassowary (^Casuarius galeaius) is from the 
island of Ceram, in the Indian Ocean. The feathers of this 
bird are of a peculiarly filamentous or hair-like character, en- 
tirely wanting in the webs which spring from the sides of the 
shaft in ordinary feathers. It is a bird of great power and 
endurance, rivaling even the ostrich in those qualities as well 
as in those famous powers of digestion which are so notorious 
in the latter bird. 
No. 2.— THE MONKEY HOUSE. 
The present house for Monkeys has been found too small 
and badly ventilated for the proper accommodation of the 
animals, and the Society has in contemplation the erection of 
a new and suitable building when circumstances will warrant 
its completion. 
The Monkeys of the Old World, or of Africa, Asia, and the 
Malayan Islands, have been arranged by naturalists in one great 
group called Catarrhini, while those of the New World con- 
stitute another group known as Platyrrhini. They are very 
well marked in zoological characters, the most constant of 
which is that from which they derive their name. In the 
Catarrhini the septum, or cartilage dividing the nose, is nar- 
rower at the bottom than at the top, so that the nostrils con- 
verge towards the bottom, while in the Platyrrhini the cartil- 
age is of the same breadth throughout and the nostrils are 
therefore parallel. The dentition of the first group is the 
same as that of man, being eight incisors, four canines, and 
twenty molars. 
