d66 MICROGLOSSUS ATERRIMUS. 



NOTE XIV. 



ON THE IMMATURE DRESS OF MICROGLOSSUS 



ATERRIMUS 



BY 



J. BUTTIKOFER. 



Amongst a small number of birds , recently presented to 

 the Leyden Museum by Mr. J. Bensbach , of late Resident 

 at Ternate , I found a very interesting specimen of the 

 Great Black Cockatoo from the Arfak Mountains , New 

 Guinea, a specimen which T consider to be immature on 

 account of the great extent of yellow on the black plumage 

 and of the horny white color of the point of the bill and 

 the front of the lower mandible. 



Unfortunately we know very little about the immature 

 dress of this species, no nestling having been described as 

 yet, and what is stated to characterize the young bird is 

 the whitish tip of the upper and the horny white front of 

 the lower mandible, as well as the more or less developed 

 yellow cross-bars or vermiculations on the under wing- 

 and tail-coverts and the lower surface of the body. 



No doubt these traces of yellow on the otherwise entirely 

 black plumage are only the last remnants of a more richly 

 yellow-barred juvenile dress , and really is such a dress 

 represented in our above mentioned specimen, the descrip- 

 tion of which is as follows: 



General color , with the exception of the tail , black , 

 long crest-leathers fully developed , black , some of them 

 tipped with fulvous , and nearly all showing a series of 



Notes from the Leyden IVluseum, "Vol. ^"V'l. 



