Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A species of cassowary, Casuarius bennetti, peculiar to the island of New Britain.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A species of cassowary (Casuarius Bennetti) found in New Britain, and noted for its agility in running and leaping. It is smaller and has stouter legs than the common cassowary. Its crest is bilobed; the neck and breast are black; the back, rufous mixed with black; and the naked skin of the neck, blue.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A species of cassowary (Casuarius bennetti) found in New Britain, and noted for its agility. It is smaller and has stouter legs than the common cassowary.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Native name.

Support

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Examples

  • 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.

    The South Sea Whaler William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • Nowhere else in the world do we find those very oldest types of birds represented by the cassowaries, the emus, and the mooruk of New Britain.

    Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science Grant Allen 1873

  • 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.

    The South Sea Whaler William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

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