Cassowaries only lay from three to five eggs, and it seems that the cock bird alone sits on them, and that he also takes care of the little ones after they are hatched.
Kiwis
More curious still are the kiwis of New Zealand, whose wings are so very small, and so completely concealed under the feathers of the body, that practically they may be said to have none at all. Besides this, the beak is so long and slender that it reminds one of that of a woodcock or a snipe. The nostrils are placed at the very tip of this beak, which the bird appears to use by plunging it deeply into soft ground, and then smelling for worms.
When it finds a worm it seems to coax rather than to pull it out of the ground, and then throws up its head and swallows it whole.
Kiwis have several times been brought to the London Zoo, but hardly any one ever saw them, for all day long they were fast asleep among their straw. If the keeper took them out and woke them they would just yawn once or twice, opening their beaks to the widest possible extent, and then fall fast asleep again.
After dark, however, these birds become very lively, and will run with such speed that even a dog can scarcely overtake them. This shows that their natural habit is to go abroad and seek their food during the night.
The egg of the kiwi is enormously large. Indeed, it is almost a quarter of the size of the bird itself, and when two eggs have been laid and the bird is sitting on them, the ends project beyond the feathers on either side of its body.
Bustards
The bustards also are able to run very well, and unlike the birds belonging to the ostrich family, they are also able to fly.
The finest of these birds is the great bustard, which until about the year 1840 was found wild in Great Britain. The cock is between three and four feet in height, and the head and body together are nearly four feet long, while when the wings are fully spread they measure quite eight feet from tip to tip. The hen is a good deal smaller.