COCKATOOS. 



139 



dandelion ; when breeding they require some soft food 

 (sopped bread pressed nearly dry will do), with which 

 to feed their young. In an outdoor aviary they breed 

 freely, but indoors they frequentljr fail. They are 

 [iretty, fairly innocent, but noisy birds, repeating the 

 same phrase over and over until it becomes irritating. 



Great Black Cockatoo {Microglossus aterrimus). 

 Slaty-black, when living powdered with grey ; wings 

 and tail with a green gloss ; forehead and lores intense 

 velvety black : a long crest of narrow feathers on the 

 head ; naked cheeks pale red, passing into pale yellow 

 on the borders ; beak and feet black ; irides dark brown. 

 Female smaller than male, with much shorter and less 

 regularly tnpered beak, with a considerably shorter 

 terminal hook. Hab., Papuan Islands and North 



Uould' i" Handbook," Vol._ H., p. 28) quotes the fol- 

 lowing note by Mr. Maegillivray : — " This very fine 

 bird, wliich is not uncommon in the vicinity of Cape 

 York, was usually found in the densest scrub among 

 the tops of the tallest trees, but was occaeionaUy seen 

 in the open forest land perclied on the largest of the 

 Eiiralijpti. apparently resting on its passage from one 

 belt of trees or patch of ecrub to anothea-. Like the 

 Cah/ptorJiynrJti. it flies slowly, and usually but a ehort 

 distance. In November, 1849, the period of our last 

 visit to Cape York, it ■was always found in pairs, very 

 shy, and ditiicuU of approach. Its cry is merely a low, 

 short whistle of a single note, which may be represented 

 by the letters ' Hxceet-hvcet.' The stomach of the first 

 one killed contained a few small pieces of quartz and 

 trriturated' fragments of palm carbbage, with which the 

 crop of another -siJecimen was completely filled ; and 

 the idea immediately euggests itself that the powerful 

 bill of this bird is a most fitting instrument for strip- 

 ping off tbe leaves near the summits of the Seafortliia 

 eh;/ans and other palms to enable it to arrive at the 

 central tender .shoot." 



A. J. Canii)bell ("Nest.s and Eggs," p. 601) quotes the 

 following field-note by Mr. Harry Barnard: "They 

 have a singular habit of breaking off, with the aid of 

 their powerful bill, green tmgs about the thickness of 

 a man's finger, stripping them of their leaves, and 

 dj'opping the bare twigs into the nesting-hole. The birds 

 then bite the twigs into pieces about 2in. or 3in. in 

 length. One nest in particular, which Mr. Barnard 

 examined in a large bloodwood (Eucah/pln.'') stump, had 

 the bottom of the hole covered to a depth of about 4in: 

 ■with the portions of sticks. With regard to the use of 

 this bottom lining, Mr. Le Sonef suggests a feasible 

 explanation, that, as the birds breed from November to 

 March — the rainy season — and as the nesting-holes are 

 usually in upright trunks which would catch m'uch rain, 

 the 'dunnage ' of sticks would keep the egg or young off 

 the damp rotten dehrix at the bottom of the hole." 



>Ir. Campbell (p. 600) thus deecribas the nest and 

 eggs: — 



"Nest. — The hollow branch or bole of a tree. 



" Eggx. — Clutch, one usually; round-oval in shape; 

 te3rt.ure somewhat coarse or granulated ; surface has a 

 slight trace of gloss, also a few limy nodules ; colour 

 while. Dimension* in inches of single examples : (1) 

 2.16 by 1.58. (2) 2.05 by 1.5." 

 - This bird first reached the London Zoological Gardens 

 ^in 1861. since which time others have been added to the 

 Society's collection. Russ speaks of it as of late occur- 

 ring occasionally in the trade, and says that Dr. Platen 

 brought home three examples. In 1907 Mr. Walter 

 Goodfellow brought home a specimen from New Guinea, 



of which Mr. Seth-Sraith says : " A most extraordinary 

 bird, with an enormous bill, well adapted for breaking 

 hard nuts, upon which it largely subsists in a wild state. 

 The lower part of the face is bare of feathers and the 

 skin bright red. The bird ie wonderfully tame and 

 gentle, and delights in being petted." {The Avictiltural 

 Magazine, Second Series, Vol. V., p. 243.) 



FuNEREAi, Cockatoo [Cahjptorhynchus funereus). 



Brownisih-black glosse^d with green, especially on the 



head ; body-feathers with narrow brown margins, more 



Cockatoo belonging to H.M. Queen Alexandk.v. 



(Photoyraph from life.) 



or less olivaceous on the undex-surface ; tail-feathere, 

 excepting the two central ones, crossed by a broad brun- 

 stone-yeilow belt, more or less variegated with iiregular 

 zigzag" brownish-black markings ; external web of outer 

 feathers and margin of external webs of all the others- 

 f|>rownish-blaok ; ear-coverts dull waxy-yellow ; beak 

 blatk ; feet mealy blackish -brown ; irides blackish-brown. 

 Female not differentiated, but probably differs much, 

 as in the preceding species. Hab., South-Eastern Aus- 

 tralia and Tasmania. 



Goidd says of this species (" Handbook," Vol. 11., 

 p. 21) : "Tlie thick brushes clothing the mountain sides 

 and bordering the coast-line, the trees on the plains, andi 

 the more open country are equally frequented by it ; at 

 the same time it is nowhere verv numerous, but is- 

 usually met with associated in small companies of fronii 

 four to eight in number, except during the breeding 



