342 Birds. 
about the neck are two protuberances of a bluish colour, 
in shape like the wattles of a cock. The feathers consist 
of long, slender, separate barbs, which hang down on 
each side of the body, so that at a distance he looks as 
if he were entirely covered with the hairs of a bear 
rather than with the plumage of a bird. His height is 
about five feet. The Cassowary is as voracious as the 
ostrich, and eats indiscriminately whatever comes in his 
way, and does not seem to have any sort of predilection 
in the choice of his food. The Dutch travellers assert 
that he can devour not only glass, iron, and stones, but 
even burning coals, without testifying the smallest fear, 
or sustaining the least injury ; and it is said that the 
passage of his food is performed so speedily that even 
eggs will pass unbroken. He is a native of some of the 
Indian islands. The eggs of the female are nearly 
fifteen inches in circumference, of a greenish colour. It 
has been said of the Cassowary that he has the head of a 
warrior, the eye of a lion, the armament of a porcupine, 
and the swiftness of a courser. 
A Cassowary once kept in the menagerie of the mu- 
seum at Paris, devoured every day between three and 
four pounds weight of bread, six or seven apples, and a 
bunch of carrots. In summer it drank about four pints 
of water in the day, and in winter somewhat more. It 
swallowed all its food without bruising it. This bird 
was sometimes ill-tempered and mischievous, and much 
irritated when any person approached it of a dirty 
or ragged appearance, or dressed in red clothes, and 
frequently attempted to strike at them by kicking for- 
ward with its feet. It has been known to leap out 
of its enclosure and to tear the legs of a man with its 
claws. 
The Cassowary is very vigorous and powerful ; its 
beak being, in proportion, much stronger than that of 
the ostrich, it has the means of defending itself with 
great advantage, and of easily pulling down and breaking 
in pieces almost any hard substance. It strikes in a very 
dangerous manner with its feet either behind or before, 
not unlike the kicking of a horse, at any object which 
offends it, and runs with surprising swiftness. 
