Kathy Brown, age 10, of Lancaster, Penna., for her question:
What is a cassowary?
The cassowary is a bird, though we cannot class him among the dainty feathered friends of mankind who flit chirruping from tree to tree. He is a five foot tall whopper and no friend of man. Even a so‑called tamed cassowary may turn on his benefactor and tear him to ribbons. Luckily for us. this hostile bird is not a native of the New World. His home is New Guinea and a few nearby islands. A small number of his relatives are still at large in northern Australia.
Of course, no bird of this size can take to the air. He is one of the ratites, or flightless birds, which makes him kin to the ostrich, the emu and the rhea bird of the South American pampas. Most of the ratites are birds of the open plains. The cassowary, however, enjoys life in the deep forests, though when in a hurry, he can run at 40 miles an hour and leap over a six foot hurdle with ease. This makes him as fast as the fleetfooted ostrich and a better jumper.
In appearance, the cassowary is an impressive bird. His huge, oval shaped body rests on rather short sturdy legs. The body is covered with feathers like long silken hairs, black or dark brown in color. Compared with the ostrich, his neck is short, but this neck and his head have other features which set the cassowary apart from the other ratite birds.
They are without feathers of any kind. The head is crowned with a plate of horny material, often sharp as a blade. The naked neck is adorned with flaps of skin called wattles, of gaudy colors. They may be red, yellow or blue.
The cassowary's weapons are his sharp beak, his head plate and the saber‑like talon on the center toe of his three‑toed foot. He can also kick like a mule and he can kick in any direction, front, back or sideways.
In a fair fight, no man is a match for the cassowary. Fortunately for mankind., he is a shy bird. and. prefers his quiet forest life to open combat. There he hunts grubs, insects, fruits, bulbs and salad greens. He likes the water and is a good swimmer. He has been observed. washing himself in a river and going for a swim in the ocean.
Mrs. Cassowary is slightly larger than her husband. She lays from three to six large pale green eggs in a nest on the ground lined with grasses. Mr. Cassowary then takes over. He sits on the eggs for maybe seven long weeks. The chicks which .finally hatch are sassy, drab brown little creatures striped with black and white. Mama pays little or no attention to her brood. It is papa who feeds them, disciplines them and educates them to grow up to behave as proper cassowaries should.