Not long after the caressings mentioned, the parrot, which had lived in health for many years, fell sick, and by and by being seized with repeated attacks of convulsions, seated in the lap of its mistress, it expired, grievously regretted. Having opened the body in search of the cause of death, I discovered an egg, nearly perfect, in the uterus, but in consequence of the want of a male, in a state of putrefaction; and this, indeed, frequently happens among birds confined in cages, which show desire for the company of the male. These and other instances induce me to believe that the common fowl and the pheasant do not only solace their females with their crowing, but farther give them the faculty of producing eggs by its means; for when the cock crows in the night some of the hens perched near him bestir themselves, clapping their wings and shaking their heads; shuddering and gesticulating as they are wont to do after intercourse. A certain bird, as large again as a swan, and which the Dutch call a cassowary, was imported no long time ago from the island of Java, in the East Indies, into Holland. Ulysses Aldrovandus[138] gives a figure of this bird, and informs us that it is called an emeu by the Indians. It is not a two-toed bird, like the ostrich, but has three toes on each foot, one of which is furnished with a spur of such length, strength, and hardness, that the creature can easily kick through a board two fingers’ breadth in thickness. The cassowary defends itself by kicking forwards. In the body, legs, and thighs it resembles the ostrich; it has not a broad bill like the ostrich however, but one that is rounded and black. On its head, by way of crest, it has an orbicular protuberant horn. It has no tongue, and devours everything that is presented to it--stones, coals, even though alight, pieces of glass--all without distinction. Its feathers sprout in pairs from each particular quill, and are of a black colour, short and slender, approaching to hair or down in their characters. Its wings are very short and imperfect. The whole aspect of the creature is truculent, and it has numbers of red and blue wattles longitudinally disposed along the neck.