558 



GOLIAH ARATOO. 



Microglossus aterrimus. WAGIER. 

 PLATE XVI. 



Microglossus aterrimus, Wagler^ Mon. Psitl. in Abhand. 



c., p. 682, sp. 1, Vieill. Gal. des Ow, tab. 50 Peittacus 



gigas, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 107, sp. 75 Psitt. aterrimus, 



Gmel. i. p. 330; Kuhl, Consp. p. 93, sp. 165 Psitt. Go- 



liah, KuhVs Consp. Ptitt. in Nov. Act. % <Jc., p. 92, sp. 166. 

 Great Black Cockatoo, Edwards, pi. 316 Black Coc- 

 katoo, Shaw, viii. 274, p. 71. 



IN size it is one of the largest of the known Psit- 

 ticidae, being equal, if not superior to the Red and 

 Yellow Maccaw. The first description we have of 

 it is that of Edwards, though he mentions that a pre- 

 vious figure, apparently of the same species, had ap- 

 peared in a small hook of prints of birds, drawn from 

 ihe life, and published by S. Vander Meulen at Am- 

 sterdam in 1707. Long, however, as it appears to 

 have been noticed, we are still ignorant of the essen- 

 tial parts of its history, viz. its habits and peculiar 

 economy, which the unusual form of the tongue and 

 other modifications of character would intimate to he 

 widely different from those of the genus last de- 

 scribed. It is a native of Papua, Waigeoa, New 

 Guinea, and other eastern Australian islands. 



