The wings are quite absent, and are replaced by a group of horny black spines like blunt porcupine quills.
These birds wander about the vast mountainous forests that cover the island of Ceram, feeding chiefly on fallen fruits, and on insects or crustacea.

The female lays from three to five large and beautifully shagreened green eggs upon a bed of leaves, the male and female sitting upon them alternately for about a month.

This bird is the helmeted cassowary (Casuarius galeatus) of naturalists, and was for a long time the only species known.

Others have since been discovered in New Guinea, New Britain, and North Australia.
It was in the Moluccas that I first discovered undoubted cases of "mimicry" among birds, and these are so curious that I must briefly describe them.

It will be as well, however, first to explain what is meant by mimicry in natural history.