AUSTRALIAN CASSOWARY. 
Chick. “ Head and hind-neck pale rufous ; fore-neck yellowish buff ; rest of body yellowish 
buff. From base of neck to end of tail along the back run three broad longitudinal 
black bands, variegated with rufous, and each about seven-eighths of an inch wide. 
On the sides are three irregular wavy black bands extending from the shoulder-girdle 
down the sides to the beginning of the metatarsus.”* 
Nest. “ A bed of sticks, leaves, and such-like vegetable debris, usually placed near the 
base of a large tree in dense scrub ” (Campbell). 
Eggs. “ Clutch, four to six ; some authorities state three to five ; of a graceful elliptical 
form, and superficially like shagreen or rough American cloth, but not so rough or 
granulated as the Emu’s (Dromaius) egg. General appearance in colour, beautiful 
light pea-green, but if examined vertically the raised rough particles only of the shell 
will be found to be green, while the minute interstices are greenish white. Dimensions 
in inches 5.56 to 5.43 by 3.81 to 3,62 ” (Campbell), 
Breeding season. July to September (Ramsay). 
Incubation-period. About eight weeks. 
The announcement of the existence of a species of Cassowary on the Australian 
continent was one of the chief ornithological events of the year 1854, when 
a communication was made by William Sheridan Wall, then curator of the 
Australian Museum, Sydney, to the Illustrated Sydney Herald of the 3rd 
June. The original specimen described by Mr. Wall in this newspaper was 
collected by his brother Thomas, who was Naturalist to the Kennedy 
Expedition, which ended so disastrously in 1848. 
The exact date and locality seems uncertain. Carron, one of the survivors, 
in his narrative (written from memory) says that it was shot by Jackey, the 
black boy, on November 4th, in the vicinity of Princess Charlotte’s Bay. 
Mr. Ramsayf says that Carron told him the type was obtained near Rockingham 
Bay, and that it has not been recorded north of Cooktown, 
Writing to Gould from H.M.S. “ Rattlesnake,” Moreton Bay, on May 19th, 
1849, Macgillivray says that this bird was obtained on the north-east coast of 
Queensland, “ gaudily covered with blue about the head, and furnished with 
a helmet. Carron, the botanist, one of the survivors of Kennedy’s expedition, 
told me of this, adding that Wall thought so much of his prize that he 
carried the skin on his back until they arrived at Weymouth Bay, where 
he died.” 
However, it is quite certain that the type was lost, and the \first 
specimen that was obtained for science was shot by Mr. Randall Johnson (in 
the Gowrie Creek scrub) while on a visit to Rockingham Bay in September, 
1866, and was described as new, under the name of Gasuarius johnsonii, by 
Dr. F. Mueller of Melbourne in the Australasian on December 15th of the same 
year.f 
* Rothschild, Trans. Z.S., XV., p. 124 (1900). 
t Tab. List Austr. B., p. 35 (1888). 
t P.Z.S., p. 241 (1867). 
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