STEUTHIONES. 
CASSOWARIES : THE MOORUK. 
The first specimen of the species of cassowary (the moo- 
ruk) 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 
Stratliioncs) performs the task of incubation, a very serious 
matter Avith 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 Stmtliiones of 
very peculiar interest. The first is, that the ostriches of 
Africa and America lay Avhite eggs, Avhile 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 knoAvn species that lay green eggs two distinct 
feathers groAv from one quill, Avhile the species that produce 
white eggs have only a single plume on each quill. Now 
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