mply to have a look at the intruders on its domain.

"Well, you are an extraordinary creature!" exclaimed Walter. His remark
made the rest of the party turn their heads, when Nub and Dan started up
with the intention of catching the bird.

"Ho! ho! is that your game, my lads?" the strange creature seemed to
say, as it struck out alternately in front with both its feet, sending
the black and the Irishman sprawling on their backs to a considerable
distance--happily not breaking their limbs, which, from the apparent
strength of its legs, it might very easily have done. It then whisked
round, and rushed off with a curious action at a great rate through the
forest, leaping over fallen trees and all other impediments in its way
in a manner which would have made it a hard matter for the best
steeple-chase rider in all Ireland to follow it. Dan and Nub, picking
themselves up again, attempted, along with the doctor, to catch it, but
they were soon left far behind. At length returning, they threw
themselves on the ground panting and blowing.

"I would have given fifty pounds to have got hold of that creature!"
exclaimed the doctor, "I have never seen anything like it before. I
have heard that there are similar wingless birds in New Zealand; but as
no Englishman has ever caught sight of one, I was inclined to doubt the
fact."

The bird seen by the party was a species of cassowary, which is found in
Java and other East India islands. Several specimens have long since
been brought to England from the island of New Britain, the natives of
which call it the "mooruk," and hold it in some degree sacred. When
they are found very young, they are brought up as pets, and become
thoroughly domesticated, exhibiting the most perfect confidence and a
wonderfully curious disposition.

Dan and the doctor had both started up with their bows; Nub had taken
his, but when the mooruk kicked him it had been sent flying out of his
hand, and before he could recover it the bird had got to such a distance
that his arrow would have glanced harmlessly off its thick feathers, had
he attempted to shoot. Dan was excessively vexed at having let the bird
escape.

"Shure, now, if we had thought of throwing a noose over its head, we
might have caught the baste; and it would have given us as many dinners
as a good-sized sheep!" he exclaimed.

"Not for five hundred pounds would I have allowed it to have been
killed!" cried the doctor. "If we could ha