5 6 4 
FLIGHTLESS BIRDS . 
skin of the head and neck, coupled with the glossy sheen of the blue-black plumage, 
cassowaries are perhaps the handsomest of all the Ratitce. The largest species of 
all, and the one in which the horn-coloured helmet attains the greatest development, 
is the Australian cassowary, which, when erect, stands considerably over five feet 
in height. Among its distinctive features is the fine cobalt-blue tint of the throat 
and fore-neck, and the red terminal flaps of the deeply divided wattle; the Ceram 
AUSTRALIAN CASSOWARY. 
species having the throat and fore-neck dull purple. Of the species without 
wattles, Bennett’s cassowary—the muruk of the natives—has the neck entirely 
blue; while in Westermann’s cassowary the fore-part of the neck is blue and the 
hinder portion red; the reverse of this characterising the painted-necked species. 
Aestlings have the plumage mottled, while at a later stage the colour is tawny. 
