1 868 THE PARROT TRIBE 



the crest are also distinctive. In the living state the plumage is of a slaty-black 

 tint, powdered with gray; the forehead and lores being deep velvety black; while 

 the feathers of the wings and tail exhibit green reflections. The naked cheeks are 

 pale red, bordered with equally pale yellow, and the bill and feet are black. In 

 length this magnificent, but funereal-looking bird, measures from twenty-nine to 

 thirty-one inches, some ten of which are taken up by the tail. The largest speci- 

 mens come from the mainland of New Guinea, those inhabiting the Aru islands 

 being considerably smaller. The tongue occupies only a small space in the enor- 

 mous mouth, and has been compared to a round pink worm with a black head, and is 

 partially* extensile. The color of the naked skin of the face is subject to consider- 

 able variation in the living bird, and, at times of excitement, owing to a kind of 

 blushing process, becomes of a deep blood red. That the enormously powerful bill 

 of this bird must have some special use is quite evident, and its particular office has 

 been described by Mr. Wallace in the following interesting account of the creature's 

 habits: "The great black cockatoo," writes this observer, "frequents the lower parts 

 of the forest, and is seen singly, or at most two or three together. It flies slowly and 

 noiselessly and may be killed by a comparatively-slight wound. It eats various 

 fruits and seeds, but seems more particularly attached to the kernel of the kanary 

 nut, which grows, on a lofty forest tree (Canarium commune}, abundant in the 

 islands where this bird is found; and the manner in which it gets at these seeds 

 shows a correlation of structure and habits, which would point out the kanary as 

 its special food. The shell of this nut is so excessively hard that only a heavy 

 hammer will crack it; it is somewhat triangular, and the outside is quite smooth. 

 The manner in which the bird opens these nuts is very curious. Taking one end- 

 ways in its bill, and keeping it firm by a pressure of the tongue, it cuts a transverse 

 notch by a lateral sawing motion of the sharp-edged lower mandible. This done, 

 it takes hold of the nut with its foot, and, biting off a piece of leaf, retains it in the 

 deep notch of the upper mandible, a,nd, again seizing the nut, which is prevented 

 from slipping by the elastic tissue of the leaf, fixes the edge of the lower mandible 

 in the notch, and by a powerful nip breaks off a piece of the shell. Again taking 

 the nut in its claws, it inserts the very long and sharp point of the bill and picks 

 out the kernel, which is seized hold of, morsel by morsel, by the extensile tongue. 

 Thus every detail of form and structure in the extraordinary bill of this bird seems 

 to have its use, and we may easily conceive that the black cockatoos have main- 

 tained themselves in competition with their more active and more numerous white 

 allies by their power of existing on a kind of food which no other bird is able to 

 extract from its stony shell." Dr. Guillemard adds that in New Guinea it is ex- 

 tremely difficult to obtain these birds alive, and that when in captivity their move- 

 ments are slow and clumsy in the extreme. Moreover, as the pectoral muscles are 

 small and meagre, when compared to the enormous head and beak, it is probable 

 that these cockatoos resort to flight as seldom as possible. 



Under the general name of raven cockatoos may be included a 

 Cockatoos grou P f seven species, which, while agreeing with the last in their 

 black or brown coloration, are distinguished by their completely- 

 feathered cheeks, the more ordinary form of the beak, and the shorter and broader 



