OCR Text |
Show 494 MR. W. POWELL ON THE MORROOP. [June 15, they are also very fond of fish. Whilst in conversation with a native one day, he told me that the Pook-Pook (or Crocodile) was very fond of Cassowary's flesh and often eats them. It puzzled me very much to understand how it was that the alligator, who is so unwieldy in his movements on shore, could possibly catch a bird of such swiftness. It chanced that afterwards I witnessed an interesting occurrence that may very possibly account for it. I was one day some little distance up a river in New Britain, sitting in m y little dingey fishing (the boat and myself being partially hidden by bushes) ; I saw a Morroop (Cassowary) come down to the water's edge and stand for some minutes apparently watching the water carefully ; it then stepped into the river where the water was about three feet deep, and partially squatting down, spread its wings out, submerging them, the feathers being spread and ruffled. The bird remained perfectly motionless ; I also noticed that the eyes were closed as if asleep. It remained in this position for fully a quarter of an hour, when suddenly closing its wings and straightening its feathers, it stepped out onto the bank, where, shaking itself several times, a number of small fishes fell from under the wings and from amidst the feathers, which were immediately picked up and swallowed. The fishes had evidently mistaken the feathers for a description of weed that grows in the water along the banks of the rivers in this island, and very much resembles the feathers of the Cassowary, and in which the smaller fish hide to avoid the larger ones that prey on them. I think it would have been very easy for an alligator to seize the bird whilst thus in the water. These birds generally go into the thickest scrubs to sleep ; and although I have never myself seen them, I hear from the natives that the hen birds sleep with their heads under their wings, lying down, and that the male bird lies with his head stretched > out along the ground, probably to guard against surprise. The method the natives adopt to catch them is to light fires in a large circle of about a mile in circumference in the long grass on the plains, leaving one opening in the circle, at which is stationed several men armed with spears. The fire is made to burn towards the centre of the circle by men and women on the outside, who beat out with bushes all fire likely to spread in any other direction; this drives the Cassowary that are within the circle to tbe opening, where they are speared by the men stationed there for that purpose. Another method is to place a rope (made of the bark of a tree), with a running-noose at one end and a loop at the other, round the nest, covering it with sand so as to hide it. The native takes the other end (which has been wound round his body) behind a tree, and waits for the bird to come. When she is seated on the nest, in the act of laying an egg, he pulls the rope and the noose catches the legs of the Cassowary ; he then runs with the other end to a tree, and takes a round turn, which holds the bird in its struggle to escape until it is quite tired out and helpless: he then dispatches it with his spear. One man, when I was in the Goonuw district (New Britain), met with his death in the following peculiar manner whilst waiting for a Cassowary to come to its nest. Having his rope |