126 GREAT BLAOK COCKATOO. 



so fully described and beautifully rendered by Gould, in his work on 

 the birds of New Guinea. 



The first specimen received by the Zoological Society of London 

 came into their possession in 1861, and another was purchased in 1875, 

 which yet lives in the Parrot House, where it attracts the notice of 

 visitors, no less by its extraordinary appearance than by the comical 

 antics in which it is prone to indulge. 



Although the beak of this Cockatoo is of portentous dimensions, 

 the creature shows no disposition to make use of it upon men or things; 

 for it is very gentle and playful with the keeper, and is never to be 

 seen gnawing its cage, as so many of its companions in captivity are 

 J n the habit of doing. 



The figure given in Jardine's Naturalist's Library, vol. x. page 138, 

 does not do justice to the curious appearance of the bird; which differs 

 in many respects from all the other Cockatoos, especially in the form- 

 ation of the crest, which is composed of more numerous and more 

 slender feathers than is the case with any other member of the family. 

 Our plate of this bird is drawn from the specimen now to be seen 

 in the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, and could not be 

 more true to life if a photograph. 



Although usually said to be a native of New Guinea, the Goliah, 

 or Goliath Aratoo, is also found in the adjacent Islands of Eastern 

 Australia. Mr. Wallace met with it on the north coast, and Miiller 

 in the southern parts of New Guinea, where it attracted his attention 

 by its comical antics among the trees : stooping down and opening its 

 mouth at him as he looked on it with surprise; the deep red colour 

 of the naked cheeks and the bristled plumage testifying to the bird's 

 anger at the intrusion of a white stranger in its haunts, or possibly 

 to its dread of the unknown. It was also seen by Macgillivray at 

 Cape York. 



It is curious that the colour of the face should undergo, according 

 to the emotions that for the time animate the creature, changes analagous 

 to the becoming, but sometimes inconvenient, phenomenon known 

 among human beings as blushing; but it actually does blush, not 

 however from shame, or modesty, as in the case of man, but from 

 anger or surprise; though excitement will also give rise to the change 

 of colour, as when it sees the keeper approaching with some "monkey 

 nuts", of which it is particularly fond. 



That this avine blushing is of service to the bird, and has been 

 adopted by it as a ruse for striking terror into a foe, as a writer, 

 whom we need not name, pretends, is, to say the least, improbable; 

 and the true explanation of the phenomenon doubtless is, that it results 



