Forms: α. 7 casso-, cassaware, 9 cassowar; β. 7 cassawarway, -waraway, cassa-, cassiowary, 8 cassuary, (casuari), 7– cassowary. [a. Malay kasuārī or kasavārī (Yule). In F. casoar, It. casuario, mod.L. casuārius. The earliest Eng. form was app. through Du. or F.]
1. A genus of large cursorial birds, related to the Ostrich, inhabiting the islands in the Indian Archipelago as far as New Guinea. They stand about five feet high; the wings are of no use for flight, but are furnished with stiff featherless quills, like spines, which serve for combat or defence.
‘Named Emeu by the early Portuguese navigators. It is the Emeu vulgo Casoaris (the latter appearing to be the Malay appellation) of Bontius.’ Penny Cycl., XXIII. 142/2. (See EMEU.)
1611. Coryat, Crudities, Pref. Verses. Saint Iames his Ginney Hens, the Cassawarway moreouer … (Margin. An East Indian bird at Saint Iames in the keeping of Mr. Walker).
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Gt. Eater Kent, 11. From the tit-mouse to the estrich or cassawaraway.
1656. H. More, Antid. Ath., II. xi. (1712), 74. In the Cassoware or Emeu.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxv. § 8. 152 (J.). I have a clear Idea of the Relation of Dam and Chick, between the two Cassiowaries in St. James’s Park.
1729. Dampier’s Voy., IV. I. 266. The Cassawaris is about the bigness of a large Virginia Turkey.
1772. Weekly Mag., 25 June, 386/1. The casuari is black, and in size equal to an ostrich.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., III. 39. The Cassowary is a bird which was first brought … into Europe by the Dutch from Java.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, VII. xviii. Large as the hairy Cassowar was that o’ershadowing Bird.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geog., vi. 263. Papua is the proper centre of the Cassowaries.
2. New Holland Cassowary: the EMEU.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 142. British naturalists … now apply the term Emeu to the New Holland Cassowary.
