5oG NESTS AVD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



With regard to the exceedingly doubtful species, C. .rantlionntui, 

 supposed to be peculiar to Tasmania, Dr. Ramsay is of opinion that it 

 is nothing more than an insular variety of C. funereus, while Count 

 Salvadori states " Although I have kept this species (C. xaiithonotus) 

 separate from the preceding one (C . funereus), I am not all sure that 

 I am justified in so doing, as there is the most perfect gradation 

 between the two forms." 



G. .raiithoiiofus is exactly like C. funereua in colouring, but is smaller 

 in its dimensions, and as both sizes have been found in Tasmania, and 

 on the mainland, I have deemed it simpler to treat them as one. 



475. — Calyptorhynchus bank.5i, Latham. — (397) 

 BANKSIAN COCKATOO. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. v., pi. 7. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xx., p. log. 



Trevious Description of Eggs. — North: Victorian Naturalist (1896). 



Geoffrnjjhical Distribution. — Queensland, New South Wales, Vic- 

 toria, and South Australia. 



Ne.9t. — A hole in_, or hollow limb of, a large tree, usually near a 

 river. 



E<jgs. — Clutch, usually one ; long oval in shape ; textiu'e of shell 

 coarse, especially about the apex ; surface without gloss, minutely 

 pitted, and sometimes with a few limy nodules. Dimensions in inches 

 of single examples; (1) 2-19 x 1-5, (2) 2-03 x 1-34. 



Ohxer vat ions. — This splendid Banksian Black Cockatoo enjoys a range 

 of habitat extending down Eastern Australia. Gould has mentioned the 

 bird as being a native of Victoria, but, by some oversight, the species 

 is omitted from the cohmin for that State in his "Tabic of Distri- 

 bution ; " nor is the important bird credited to Victoria in Dr. E. P. 

 Ramsay's " Tabular List." 



The late Mr. H. W. Wheelvmght stated he knew of two specimens 

 of Black Cockatoos that were killed in the district of Melbourne 

 in the early " fifties," that had " the tail feathers spotted with 

 red." No doubt they were Banksian Birds. The late Mr. T. A. 

 Forbos-Lcith, in his treatise, '' The I'iu-rots of Victoria," states that 

 at one time the Banksian Cockatoo " was common enough in the interior 

 of Victoria," while I myself saw a small flock of tliese fine birds in the 

 Wimmera district (1882). They were engaged nipping off the tender 

 tops of a tree, leaving tlic branchlels .scattered on the ground below. 



Although the Banksian was one of the first Black Cockatoos known 

 to ornithologists, its egg was one of tlie last to be described. The first 



