( i L YPTORH YNCHUS BANKSIL {Gould.) 
II .1 X KS IAN COCKATOO. Genus: Oalyptorhynchus. 
BRE we have ;i Bpeoies of CaIy/>tor/iync/m# whose sexes vary iii plumage, like the Calypfor/iynchm Macro- 
rhyiu-hus, to so great an extent, that I have again thought it host to reverse the order of things and 
represent the female. 
It is fitting that the largest Cockatoo should hi' named alter our great pioneer botanist, Sir Joseph 
Kinks, the onlj objection being that the bird possesses in an eminent degree those neutral qualities of 
personalty which arc as condemnatory as absence of beauty. Pine and large though he is— measuring, 
perhaps, some twenty-four inches— Ids greenish black coat and saturnine expression are by no means an 
,itt tad i\ e tout gtueinbfa. 
This bird's favourite haunts are the groves of the oak (Casuarmce) and honeysuckle (Banksian) that 
flourish alike on the saiuh sea-shore, inland river, swampy lagoon, and interior hill-country — in the temperate 
Smith Coast districts, or ill the sa nth inland desert. Here it passes an arboral existence, cracking and eating 
the seeds of these trees, or, for diversity's sake, perching in a wattle scrub to watch for signs of the presence of 
those large edible caterpillars, familiarly known as "guhbins" by the natives, who regard them as a great 
delicacy either raw or cooked. These caterpillars contain a yellow substance closely resembling the yolk of an 
egg both in appearance and llavour, and make their homes in the heart of the living wattle, preferring a 
juicy young tree to ;i toughened old one, and make borings through the stem in their travels. It is the 
great delight of the Cockatoo to discover traces of these guhbins, and then to set about scooping them out — a 
proceeding for which the structure of its powerful bill is well adapted. 
Moving in sin.-ill companies of from lour to eight, it can by no means be called sociable in its habits. 
Its journeys rarely ex< I a span of more than a feu miles at a time, accomplished slowly with laboured flight, 
and rarely rising above the altitude of some lofty gum-tree. 
Like the rest of its family, this Cockatoo seeks out in the breeding season some inaccessible hole in a 
gaunt dead gum tree, where the hen deposits two or three eggs. The cock-bird takes no share in the tedium of 
incubation, but is assiduous in his care of the young ones whose voracity demands constant feeding. 
The adult male resembles the Calyptorhynchm Leachii in all respects, except in size — the one being the 
largest bird of this family, the other the smallest — and in the colour of the bill, which is black instead of a dark 
horny shade ; so that, saving these two distinctions, a plate of the one may easily stand for a plate of the other. 
The plumage of the male is a strong greenish black, with a deep broad band of orange scarlet across 
the tail, except upon the two central and the external web of the outer feathers on each side, which are black; 
feet, mealy brown ; bill, black— in the young ones the bill is greyish white. 
The Female is also a greenish black, with the head, back of neck, and wing coverts, spotted with pale 
yello* ; breast feathers irregularly fringed with pale yellow; under tail coverts crossed by freckled bars of 
yellon ish red ; tail handed w ith red, passing into sulphur yellow, tips black ; bill, pale yellow. The young male 
bird differs only from the old one in having some dark bars across the red tail-feathers. 
The habitat is a widely-distributed one, the bird having been met with at Cape York (?), Port Denison, 
W ide K-i\ District (Queensland), Richmond and Clarence lliver District (New South Wales), and the Interior. 
