158 
GOLIAH ARATOO. 
Microglossus aterrimus. — Wagler. 
PLATE XVI. 
Microglossus aterrimus, Wagler , Mon. Psill. in Abhantl. , 
i Jc., p. 682, sp. 1 , Vieill. Gal. des Ois , tab. SO Paittacus 
gigas. Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 107, sp. 75. — Psitt. aterrimus, 
Gmel. i. p. 330; KuM, Consp. p. S3, sp. 165 Psitt. Go- 
liah, Kuhl's Consp. Psitt. in Nov. Act., S[c., p. 92, sp. 166. 
— Great Black Cockatoo, Edwards, pi. 316. — Black Coc- 
katoo, Shaw, viii. 274, p. 71. 
In size it is one of the largest of the known Psit- 
ticidse, being equal, if not superior to the Red and 
Yellow Maccaw. The first description we have of 
it is that of Edwards, though he mentions that a pre- 
vious figure, apparently of the same species, had ap- 
peared in a small book of prints of birds, drawn from 
llie life, and published by S. Vander Meulen at Am- 
sterdam in 1707. Long, however, as it appears to 
have been noticed, we are still ignorant of the essen- 
tial parts of its history, viz. its habits and peculiar 
economy, which the unusual form of the tongue and 
other modifications of character would intimate to be 
widely different from those of the genus last de- 
scribed. It is a native of Papua, Waigeoa, New 
Guinea, and other eastern Australian islands. 
