58 



undalations of bod}' and the same little ripple of song. This 

 has now being going on for a week. Is this admiration or is it 

 courtship } 



E. C. CHOr,MONDEr<KV. Jonrnal of Bombay N.H.S.) 

 {To be continued). 



^Mtorial. 



BLACK COCKATOOS : The following, reprinted from 

 " Canar}' and Cage Bird Life," evidently upsets most of the 

 sexual descriptions of these birds; in fact " Genera Avium," 

 now publishing, figures C. banks'i as black, washed in parts 

 with bluish and brownish. 



" There are six varieties of these birds, of which I have 

 " kept five — that is to say all but the Macara Black. I prefer 

 "to call these by the names that I have myself given them, 

 " because the Zoological names have no point. 



" The Macara Black is so-called bj* me because it has the 

 " the skin of the cheeks bare of feathers. This skin, by the 

 " way, changes in colour in the same manner as the wattles of 

 " a turkey cock. 



" Then there is the Banksian, the Yellow-tailed Black, the 

 " White Tail, the Green Black, and the little Garganey. A 

 " pecularity of the Banksian is their extreme range of size — 

 " from that of a Jackdaw to the size of a small Kagle. These 

 " apparent varieties are in appearance identical, though they 

 " differ in size and in their cry. 



" The pair at the show was the Large-billed Banksian, so 

 " distinguished b\' naturalists, and the male cries ' Karrak,' or 

 " or rather ' Kar-r-rak,' which is the native name for the bird. 

 " The other varieties give a squeal or smooth cry. The bird 

 " belonging to JMrs. Anningson that deservedly got the first 

 " prize was under consideration by me some years ago as a 

 " mate for my hen, but I made up my mind at the time that it 

 " was not a Large-bill, and hearing its cry the other day con- 

 " firmed my opinion. My male is still quite a chicken, and has 

 " not yet cast his short and shabby nest feathers. When 

 " immature the male andfemaleihave a similar plumage, which 



