1856.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 447 



exceedingly faint (barely perceptible) pink blush ; and no naked space 

 surrounding the base of bill. Closed wing measuring (in a specimen in 

 our museum received from the Sydney Institution) 14 inches. This fine 

 bird is not often to be seen on sale with the Calcutta dealers. Another, 

 however, is commonly to be obtained here, which I have reason to believe 

 is from N. Guinea or its neighbourhood : this is smaller, with a consider- 

 able circlet of bare skin of a blackish colour surrounding the bill, and the 

 naked space around the eye is conspicuously of a pale verditer hue, more 

 or less deep ; a peculiarity which catches the eye at the first glance : the 

 loral plumes being reduced to quite a narrow line. Closed wing (in a 

 specimen in our museum) only 12 inches. If still unnamed, it may be 

 designated C. cyanopis, nobis.* A third, which I take to be C. cttbino- 

 cristata, Fraser, is again smaller, with considerably smaller and more 

 compressed beak, and particularly fine crest; closed wing, in a female 

 specimen in our museum, only 10| in. ; but in a remarkably fine male, 

 were its wings not mutilated, at least 1 in. more. The habitat of this 

 species is unknown ; and its beak is much more compressed than in the 



" On a close examination of specimens from the three countries above mentioned, 

 a decided difference is observable in the structure of the bill, but of too trivial a 

 character, in my opinion, to warrant their being considered as distinct ; in fact, it 

 would seem to be merely a modification of the organ for the peculiar kind of food 

 afforded by the respective countries [rather a bold Lamarckian suggestion !] The 

 Van Diemen's Land bird is the largest in every respect, and has the bill, parti- 

 cularly the upper mandible, less abruptly curved, exhibiting a tendency to the form 

 of that organ in the genus Limictis : the bill of the New Guinea bird is much 

 rounder, and is, in fact, fitted to perform a totally different office from that of the 

 White Cockatoo of Van Diemen's Land, which I have ascertained, by dissection, 

 subsists principally on the small tubers of the terrestrial Orchidaceee, for procuring 

 of which its lengthened upper mandible is admirably adapted ; while it is more 

 than probable that no food of this kind is to be obtained by the New Guinea bird, 

 the structure of whose bill indicates that hard seeds, nuts, &c, constitute the 

 principal portion of its diet. The crops and stomachs of those killed in Van 

 Diemen's Land were very muscular, and contained seeds, grain, native bread (a 

 species of fungus), small tuberous and bulbous roots, and, in most instances, large 

 stones." 



Surely the differences are not much greater upon which Mr. Gould founds several 

 of his species of Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus), &c, &c. 



* Behind the crest is a space bare of feathers in all Cockatoos; and the skin 

 there is pale pinkish in C. galerita, and much darker and tinned with blue in 



C. CYANOPIh. 



3 N 



