Page View
Perrault, Claude, 1613-1688 / Memoir's for a natural history of animals : containing the anatomical descriptions of several creatures dissected by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris
(1688)
The anatomical description of a cassowar, pp. 241-249
Page 241
_______ ~~~~~~~~241 T H E ANATOMICAL ,LESCR1PTION OF A C A S S O WAA R. B Efore the year 1 5 97 this Bird was never feen in Europe; and no Author DB of the Ancients, or Modernes, has fpoken thereof. The Hollanders brought one at the return of their firif Voyage from India. It was given them as a Rarity by a Prince of the Ifle of )a'va.Six years after they brought two others, but they dyed on the way. That here defcribed was fent to the King in 1 67 1, by the Governour of Madaogafcar, who had bought it of the Marchants which returned from the Indies. It Lived four years at Ver- fail/es. Clujius fay's that in the Indies it is called Ee. We have not yet been a- ble to underhand wherefore it is in French called Cafuel or Gafrecl. This Bird, next tle 0//rich, is the greateft, and weightieft of all that we know. T1hat which Cluflus defcribes, which is the firil that the Hollanders brought from INdia, was a fourth lels than ours, which nmeafured five foot and a half in length,from the end of the B&ak to the extremity of the Tallons. Tlhe legs were tWo foot 3nd a half from the Belly to the end of the Tallons. The I-lead and Neck were a foot and a half together. The greatetI Toe, corn- pvehending the Nail, was five inches long; the Nail of the little Toe, three itichesanrd a half. The Wing was fo little, that it did not appear, being (luite lhid under the Feathers of the I3ack. Aldrovandus, who has only feen tleC del iption that is given thereof in the Relation of tlhe firfi Voyage of the U-1llanders, reports that this Bird is clicifly admirable in that it has neither Wings nor Tongue. In our Subjica we found this a falfitie. This Author inight allo have added that it has no Feathers, becauft that indeed, thofe whichl do cover it, do better ref~mble the Hair of a Bear or wild-Boar, than Feathers, or Down ; fb harlb, long, and thin are the Fibres which do com. pole the Beards of thlefe Plumes. G g AU
Based on date of publication, this material is presumed to be in the public domain.| For information on re-use, see: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Copyright