THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
described the Bankian Cockatoo and given a figure on pi. cix., writing : 
“ It most certainly differs from the Ceylonese Black Cockatoo, but is probably 
the same with that mentioned by Mr. Parkinson in his voyage.” 
When he compiled his Index Ornithologicus, published in 1790, Latham 
discarded Gmelin’s name aterrimus for his own gigas, but an earlier name 
which does not appear to have been noted had been given to the Edwardsian 
Plate 316. Thus, to the Indische Zoologie, by Forster, of Pennant’s work, is 
added a Specimen Faunulae Indicae by Thomas Pennant, published in 1781. In 
this specimen appears a binomial list of birds, generally with a reference, thereby 
validating the name ; I say binomial, but there are a few trinomials and the 
consideration of these provide a very puzzling problem. The binomials 
have already been quoted in literature but not as regards Parrot names. 
In the present case “ Psittacus niger crist. (Edw.) 316 ” is the wording, and 
we are relieved by the knowledge that there is both a prior Psittacus niger 
and a prior Psittacus cristatus, and I think this can be justly ignored. 
So far only the Edwardsian account seems to have been known to 
ornithologists, but Levaillant in his Hist. Nat. Perroq., published in 1801, 
introduced a new complication. He gave three beautiful plates, the first of 
a grey bird, the second of a black bird and the third of the head of the 
black bird. 
He wrote : “ J’ai eu le plaisir de voir deux de ces oiseaux au Cap de Bonne- 
Esperance, ou ils furent apportes vivans par un conseiller de Batavia. L’un 
etoit gris, et F autre noir.” 
The grey bird was fully described, and regarding the bill measurements 
he stated : “ Le mandible superieure a pres de cinq pouces de long, en suivant 
sa courbure, et quatre, en prenant le coude de son arc.” 
He added, that Temminck also possessed a grey bird, but he was not con- 
vinced that there were two species, but rather that the grey bird was the 
female and the black bird the male. 
The huge head figured by Levaillant for his black bird agrees with the 
measurements given for the grey one, and these measurements exceed very 
much the figure given by Edwards for his Great Black Cockatoo. The exact 
locality of the latter was not known, and now we do not know the exact 
locality for Levaillant’s birds. This is important, as in 1811 Bechstein, in 
his Kurze Uebers Vogel, proposed Psittacus griseus for the grey bird, re- 
taining aterrimus for the black one. We now know the grey bird could not 
have been a different species, but the name griseus has to be accounted for. 
It appears applicable to the bird with the largest bill if there be variation 
in that respect, and we shall see that that item has been the main consideration 
in defining subspecies, by the earlier workers called more often species. 
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