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SOME STRUTHIOUS BIRDS 
THE CASSOWARY AND THE EMU 
There is really no such thing as the cassowary at 
present, but there was so long ago as the very beginning 
of the seventeenth century, when the first live bird of 
this genus Casuarius was brought home and exhibited 
alive in Amsterdam. We now know of quite eight 
“good ”’ species, and systematists would increase, as 
is their wont, even this respectable number to twenty in 
all, including those dubious creations of the naturalist, 
“ sub-species.”” A fine series of cassowaries has been 
on view at the Zoo for some years past, the collection 
being due to the energy of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, 
to whom most of the birds belong. The veriest tyro 
would rightly place these birds in the neighbourhood 
of the ostrich, the emu, and the rhea—among the 
struthious birds in fact; and that is unquestionably 
their place in the system. Their nearest ally 
is the emu, and the two genera were at one time con- 
founded. Now we regard them as distinct. The 
cassowaries differ from the emu by the horny black 
casque upon the head, by the enormously lengthened 
nail of the innermost of the three toes, and by the 
stiff spine-like feathers of the wing, which are ordinary 
feathers devoid of barbs, and finally by the very gay 
colours, red, yellow, blue, purple, and green, about the 
head and neck. Besides, the cassowaries are not 
Australian birds exactly—since only one species is 
found in that island continent, and then only in the 
north ; they inhabit New Guinea and such islands in 
the neighbourhood as Ceram, New Britain, etc. Un- 
like the ostrich, the cassowary is a forest living fowl, 
and it has been said that its casque is of use in this 
habitat. Rushing wildly through the bush the head is 
held down and the entrapping brambles glide off the 
polished surface of the helmet. The black feathers of 
the adult bird are preceded by brown feathers in the 
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