2-982-233 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Mooruk, in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, Regent's Park, 1858. 'The mooruk is a bird of the same order as the ostrich, rhea, emu, and cassowary; the wings are abortive, that is to say, so short as to be useless for flight...This cassowary...was taken in New Caledonia...One of the calls made by the bird is "Mooruk", and hence its native name. It is smaller than the cassowary, and wants the horny casque, or helmet, on the head...this, with the greatly-reduced turkey-neck wattles, gives it the look of a young bird, and imparts what you may call a demi-semi-idiotic look to the head, reminding one somewhat of portraits of those wanting brains. It may be, after all, only a young cassowary, and time may develop his bony crest. The great interest of the bird is to the student the development of our knowledge of geographical distribution. If the Casuarius Bennettii, for so Mr. Gould has named it, be a distinct species, it shows that small islands have had large species assigned to them with a limited range...This mooruk may be "the last of the mooruks" just as there was a last dodo, and as there may be a last giraffe'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.