, THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 3 II 



siderably longer. It will learn to say a few words very 

 distinctly, and to imitate ordinary domestic sounds. 



The Black Cockatoos are very different in their ap- 

 pearance from their white brethren, being, for the most 

 part, dressed in deep mourning, except as regards the tail, 

 which is barred on its under surface with red and yellow. 

 The females are, for the most part, spotted with the same 

 colour. These birds rather approach the macaws in con- 

 figuration than they do the cockatoos, but are classed with 

 the latter on account of the crest. 



The Goliath Aratoo, or Great Black Cockatoo of 

 New Guinea, is a very different-looking creature, the colour 

 being rather dark leaden blue than black. It has a finely 

 divided crest, that hangs down the nape, but can be erected 

 at pleasure, an enormous black upper mandible, a compara- 

 tively small lower one, and a little round button in its 

 mouth by way of a tongue, and a large patch of bare red- 

 dish skin on the face. 



When eating, it fills the lower mandible with seed, which 

 it afterwards picks up, grain by grain, w^ith its tongue, 

 cracks, and, swallowing the kernel, lets the husk fall to the 

 ground. It appears to be devoid of the imitative faculty, 

 but is not more difficult to keep than the other members 

 of the family. In size it equals a good-sized fowl. 



The Gaxga Cockatoo occurs in Tasmania. It is a small 

 grey bird, about the size of the African grey parrot, 

 but has an upstanding crest, which, together with the head 

 and upper part of the neck, is of a vividly red colour. 



The Strixgops, or Night, or Owl Parrot of New Zealanc 

 is (or was, for it has been reported extinct) a large 

 bird, with such small wings that it could not fly, but 

 burrowed under the roots of the trees, where it lay close 

 during the daytime, and came out to feed at night. 



The Australian Ground Pezoporus resembles it in 



