THE CASSOWARY. 
303 
! than of feathers. — 
They are lively birds, 
and frisk and dance 
away when roused, 
when they look very 
like a woolly cushion 
on the top of two 
) poles. Like the Os- 
! trich, they are stu- 
pid, and like it, also 
run with amazing 
swiftness ; so much 
so, that it is very 
i difficult to run them Cassowary 
1 down, unless by the 
; swiftest dogs, and by them only in an open country. They 
I defend themselves by kicking with their powerful legs, and 
the blow is quite sufficient to stun a dog, or even at times to 
fracture a man’s leg ; accordingly, dogs trained for hunting 
them, always approach the running bird, not immediately in 
1 its rear, but a little on one side, so as to turn and seize it by 
the body. 
In the Emu of New Holland, there is also a very curious 
internal bag, or pouch, connected with the windpipe, but 
having no communication with the other air-cells ; its use is 
not exactly known, but it has been ingeniously conjectured, 
that in a country like New Holland, parts of which are par- 
ticularly exposed to sudden floods, the sandy plains in the 
interior are inundated, and the Emus in seeking their food 
amongst, or attempting to escape from these marshes, must 
he often obliged to have recourse to swimming ; which, con- 
sidering their weight, would be difficult, were it not for the 
power of filling this pouch with air, and thus keeping their 
heads and necks above water. That this is correct we have 
good reason for believing : for Captain Short, in the account 
of his recent expedition into the interior of Australia, men- 
tions the fact of two Emus swimming across the Morum- 
bidgee, in a part of considerable width and rapidity, which 
