130 GREAT BLACK COCKATOO. 



them are nearly twice its size, and the same remark applies to the 

 epithet gigas. 



The specific name aterrimus, again, is a misnomer, for the Yasa is 

 darker every way, and so are the male Banksian Cockatoos; while to 

 call the poor creature by the name of the dread Alecto, as Temminck 

 has done, is to libel grossly a very engaging, if somewhat peculiar- 

 looking, creature, whose " bark is," infinitely, " worse than its bite." 



The designation Aratoo is a compound of Ara, a Macaw and Cockatoo, 

 which is, to say the least, fanciful; for it requires a good deal of 

 imagination to agree with Finsch that it resembles the Arara; all the 

 reader has to do is to ignore its crest, and fancy its tail longer and 

 more pointed, and the metamorphosis is complete ; but we cannot agree 

 with the ingenious author of the remark, "Wenn man die Haube 

 fortdenkt, und den Schwanz langer und spitz, so gehort nicht viel 

 Fantasie dazu, um sich einen Arara vorzustellen ;" for we think it would 

 require a very great stretch of the imagination indeed. 



In conclusion we can strongly recommend the New Guinea Black 

 Cockatoo to amateurs, who need be under no apprehension respecting 

 its character, which is good, we might indeed say excellent; but if 

 any of our readers possess, and have become tired of the bird, we 

 shall be grateful if they will transfer it to our custody, if only for a 

 time ; as the price, at present, as far as we are concerned, is absolutely 

 prohibitive. 



