THE CASSOWARY'. 
,9 
to answer domestic purposes, like the lien or the turkey. 
Their maintenance could not be expensive, if, as Nar- 
borough says, they live entirely upon grass. 
The Cassowary is a bird which was first brought into 
Europe by the Dutch, from Java, in the East Indies, in 
which part of the world it is only to be found. 
The cassowary, though not so large as the former, yet 
appears more bulky to the eye; its body being nearly 
equal, and its neck and legs much thicker and stronger in 
proportion; this conformation gives it an air of strength 
and force, which the fierceness and singularity of its coun- 
tenance conspire to render formidable. That which has 
been described by the gentlemen of the Academy was five 
feet and a half from the point of the bill to the extremity 
of the claws ; and the legs were two feet and a half 
high, from the belly to the end of the back. In other 
birds, a part of the feathers serve for flight, and are differ- 
ent from those that serve for mere covering ; but in the 
cassowary, all the feathers are of the same kind, and out- 
wardly of the same colour. They are generally double ; 
having two long shafts, growing out of a short one, which 
is fixed in the slcin. The beards that adorn the stem or 
shaft, are about half way to the end, very long, and as 
thick as an horse-hair, without being subdivided into fibres. 
The stem or shaft is flat, shining, black, and knotted be- 
low ; and from each knot there proceeds a beard : like- 
wise, the beards at the end of the large feathers are perfectly 
black ; and towards the root of a grey tawny colour ; 
shorter, more soft, and throwing out fine fibres, like down : 
so that nothing appears except the ends, which are hard 
and black ; because the other part, composed of down, is 
quite covered. There are feathers on the head and neck; 
but they are so short, and thinly sown, that the bird’s skin 
appears naked, except towards the hinder part of the head, 
where they are a little longer. The wings, when they are 
deprived of their feathers, are but three inches lon<r. The 
ends of the wings are adorned with five prickles, of' differ- 
ent lengths and thicknesses, which bend like a bow : these 
are hollow from the roots to the very points, having only that 
slight substance within, which all quills are known to have. 
The longest of these prickles is eleven inches; and it is a 
quarter of an inch in diameter at the root, being thicker 
than towards the extremity ; the point seems broken off. 
The part, however, which most distinguishes this animal 
Yon. 11. R 
