GREAT BLACK COCKATOO. 129 



while Dr. Buss prices the bird at from four hundred and fifty to six 

 hundred marks; and one we saw at Jamrach/s, in Ratcliffe Highway, 

 a few years since, was to be purchased for £40 ; but what that veteran 

 dealer ultimately obtained for his prize we cannot say, probably some- 

 what less. For our part we should prefer to give £25 or £30 for a 

 Golden Parrot rather than for a Black Cockatoo, whether it hailed 

 from New Guinea, Northern Australia, Papua, "Waigesa, or any of the 

 other localities whence it has been recorded ; but tastes differ, of course, 

 and other people need not necessarily be of our opinion in this, or 

 any other matter. 



The legs of the New Guinea Cockatoo are long and somewhat 

 slender, and the bird hops lightly and freely after the fashion of 

 the New Zealand Parrots, which are especially active on their limbs, 

 no less upon the ground than among the boughs of their favourite 

 trees. 



Macgillivray compares the cry of Psittacus aterrimus to the syllables 

 "nweet hweet", and says it altogether lacks the harshness of the notes 

 of the white Cockatoos ; while d" Albertis describes it as " a distinct, 

 long drawn out, loud and shrill but melancholy whistle." The two or 

 three specimens of the species we have had under observation, seldom 

 made any sound at all, and appeared to be extremely silent though 

 active and lively birds, fond of being noticed, and gentle and tame; 

 yet, as we have said, they can call out when necessary. 



The few individuals of the species that are now and then brought 

 to Europe have been taken from the nest, and brought up by hand 

 by the aborigines, which would account of course for their docility. 

 How a Goliath captured when adult would comport himself in captivity, 

 is a question that remains to be decided, as far that is to say as our 

 experience goes; but most likely it would prove as intractable as the 

 rest of its congeners in similar circumstances. 



This bird, though using its foot to convey food to its mouth, does 

 not do so as habitually as the rest of the Cockatoos; proving that it 

 rather feeds on small seeds, which it can hold in its boat-like under 

 mandible, rather than on large nuts or fruit that require a prehensile 

 foot to convey them comfortably to its mouth. 



Ornithological nomenclature is often singularly inappropriate and 

 inconclusive, nor in the present instance is it much happier than in 

 many others ; some of which have been already cited in these pages, 

 but more of which remain to be noticed. For example, the name 

 "Goliath" or " Goliah", has, we presume, been bestowed upon the 

 bird on account of its size ; but the Macaws, the Moluccan and Banksian 

 Cockatoos, are all larger than the New Guinea Cockatoo, and some of 



