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Show 1830.] MR. W. POWELL ON THE MORROOP. 495 already laid, he fell asleep ; in the meanwhile the bird came to its nest and laid its egg, but, when going away, got one of its legs entangled in the noose. Thus the man who had the rope wound round his body was dragged along the ground, and, I suppose, struck against a tree, which stunned or killed him. Both the body of the man and the bird were found dead some days afterwards, still fastened together by the rope, at some considerable distance from the nest. The bones of the Cassowary are used in many ways by the natives, the leg-bones being prized to put on the butt end of spears to balance them; others of the bones are used for spatulas, knives, &c. The feathers are made into head-dresses and brushes for driving flies away. The sharp-pointed claws from the toe are in one part of New Britain used for points of spears, and are fastened on with wax, which when the spear is imbedded in the body melts, so that when the wooden part of the spear is drawn out the horn point remains in the flesh. These birds become quite domesticated and tame if kept about a house, and will follow like a dog and feed out of the hand. They have a peculiar cry, beginning high and coming down the scale about five notes. The natives have adopted this cry as their war-cry. The young ones make a whistling noise, also when feeding make a chirping something like a chicken, only considerably louder. The young on leaving the egg is left to shift for itself, and does not join a flock until it attains maturity, which, the natives tell me, takes about five years. The young bird is far from pretty, being covered with a light brown down, which grows darker as the bird ages, until it reaches the rich black of the full-grown bird. The wings are very small in comparison to its size, having no pinion-feathers, but in their place four black spine-quills, which the natives prize to wear through the cartilage of the nose. The horny comb on the head of the male bird is used by him for pushing its way through the thick scrub, which is very dense in some places, being often composed of the prickly palm and a creeping cane which is covered with sharp thorns, and which would, were it not for the comb, tear the head of the bird. It is a curious fact that there is no Cassowary in New Ireland, it only being distant from New Britain thirty miles, with Duke-of- York Island lying between them, which also has no Cassowary on it. I saw some fossil footprints on a large flat rock near the shore in N e w Ireland which appeared to me to be those of Cassowary's feet, being those of a large bird with only the three front toes, which, if they should be Cassowary's footprints, tend to show that they must have been there at one time. The flesh of the Morroop is often eaten by the natives, and the oil that is extracted from the fat is considered very valuable as a remedy for rheumatism. Altogether the Cassowary is an extremely useful bird to the natives in every way, and would form a most interesting study to the naturalist. |