THE RHEA, (Rhea Americana,)
Or American Ostrich, is about half as big as the African species. It has its head covered with feathers, and each of its feet consists of three toes. It is found on the great plains of South America, and, like the African Ostrich, is polygamous, but the curious part of the matter is that the females often lay their eggs almost anywhere on the ground, and the male takes the trouble of collecting them into a sort of nest, and sitting on them until the young birds are hatched. When thus occupied, the males often become very fierce, and will attack any one that approaches them too closely.
THE CASSOWARY, (Casuarius galeatus,)
Instead of the beautiful plumes of the ostrich, has his wings furnished only with five stiff quills without barbs, which project curiously from the feathers of the body. His plumage is black; his head is small and depressed, with a horny crown or helmet, and covered with a naked red skin; the head and neck are deprived of feathers; 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 museum 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 forward with its feet. It has been known to leap out of its enclosure and to tear the legs of a man with its claws.