Dr. P. L. Sclater on a new Cockatoo. 73 



less of the same stock ; but it attains a larger size, is robuster, has 

 larger hind feet, larger ears, and is otherwise distinguished by its 

 feet being white, and by the pure abrupt white of its under parts. The 

 bristles of its upper parts are also more numerous and more spinous. 

 It was, perhaps, originally brought over by Chinese junks, and drove 

 before it some other species, of which some few may yet be found lin- 

 gering about the huts of the savages of the interior. For, in former 

 days, before the accession of western commerce, M. Jlavescens was 

 doubtless the chief Rat of the towns of Southern China ; and special 

 circumstances may have caused it to vary ; or its pedigree may perhaps 

 be carried further back to the time when there must have been more 

 territorial connexion between this island and the main, when Lepus 

 sinensis, Cervulus Reevesii, and others managed to get across and 

 remain to this day in either country identical and unchanged in 

 form. These, however, are merely conjectures ; but the facts remain 

 that Mus Coninga is allied to M/jlavescens, and that both have been 

 banished from their accustomed haunts by the cosmopolite usurper, 

 M. decumanus. 



The Formosan Rat is distinguished by the Chinese colonists from 

 M. decumanus, which they call Laou chee, by the name Pay-ba, or 

 white belly. The country-people attribute medicinal properties to 

 its flesh, and value its carcase at fourpence a piece. I propose to 

 name the animal after the powerful pirate chief who seized the island 

 from the Dutch, and whose nightly rest this indigenous species must 

 have as greatly disturbed as do its commercial successors those of 

 the present trading community. 



On a New Species of White Cockatoo living in the 

 Society's Gardens. By P. L. Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., 

 F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. 



In April of the year before last the Society obtained from the ship 

 * La Hogue ' (as recorded in the * Proceedings ' for May 13, 1862) * 

 a pair of a fine large species of White Cockatoo, new to the collection. 

 Somewhat influenced, I must confess, by the information that they 

 had been brought to Sydney from the Salomon Islands, I was induced 

 to refer these birds to the Cacatua Ducorpsii, obtained by MM. 

 Hombron and Jacquinot in that group of islands, and described by 

 those naturalists in the Zoology of the * Voyage au Pole Sud,' 

 although they did not quite agree with the characters and figure 

 there given of that species. 



On its return voyage this year the same ship has brought over a 

 pair of smaller White Cockatoos, received at Sydney from the island 

 of Guadalcanar, of the Salomon group. As soon as I saw them, 

 I was at once convinced that I had made a mistake in referring the 

 former pair of birds to Cacatua Ducorpsii, and that the latter pair 

 were rightfully entitled to that designation. It thus becomes neces- 



» SeeP. Z. S. 1862, p. 14L 



