any cockings of the beak, surprised, indignant, and contemptuous.
Very few people can endure this. They hastily produce anything they
have--anything to conciliate the contemptuous cassowary. And as he takes
it, an expression steals across the cassowary's face which seems to
admit that perhaps the fellow isn't such a shocking outsider after all.
When a man has nothing more nutritive about him, this form of extortion
may produce halfpence.

[Illustration: THE CURSOREAN THERMOMETER.]

The rhea is small potatoes beside the ostrich--merely a smaller and
dingier camel-gander. But the emeu is a fine upstanding fellow, with his
haughty sailing head and his great feather boa.

[Illustration: THE CASSOWARY DISGUSTED.]

He is a friendly and inquisitive chap, and will come stalking down to
the wires to inspect you. If you like to walk up and down outside his
inclosure he will take a turn with you, walking at your side and turning
when you do. He is justly proud of his height and his ruff, but there is
nothing objectionably haughty about the emeu; I have always found him
ready for a quiet chat. He will eat various things, like the ostrich; so
that one regards him with a certain respect, not to say awe, for there
is no telling what wonderful things may or may not be inside him. The
biggest and handsomest emeu here is my particular friend. When he talks
to you or walks by your side he is very fine; but when he walks about a
little way off, with his head to the ground, foraging, he looks rather
like a tortoise on stilts, which is not imposing. Sometimes, when he
thinks nobody is looking, he rushes madly up and down his territory by
way of relieving his pent-up feelings, stopping very suddenly and
looking cautiously about to assure himself that nobody saw him. I call
this emeu Grimaldi; firstly, because Grimaldi is rather a fine name, and
secondly, because when once you have had a view of his head from the
back you can't call him anything else.

[Illustration: THE PROUD EMEU.]

[Illustration: GRIMALDI.]

[Illustration: THE DIET OF WORMS.]

The most extraordinary bird in the world is the kiwi. But it is not the
most extraordinary bird seen by visitors to the Zoo, because they never
see it. The kiwi buries itself asleep all day, and only comes out in the
night to demolish an unpleasant and inconvenient proverb. The kiwi is
the latest of all the birds, but catches the most worms. For this let us
honour the kiwi, and hurl him in th