CAPE TOWN PALM COCKATOO. 
Tlie above is noteworthy in that the small Arn Island race is definitely 
named, and that Schlegel also recognised that Kuhl was right in naming the 
bigger bird goliath and that the smaller, Waigiou, bird was typical aterrimus 
agreeing with Edwards’ figure. 
Ramsay, in the Proc. Linn . Soc., N.S.W., Vol. I., p. 394, 1877, recorded 
birds from Port Moresby, New Guinea, under the name Microglossum 
aterrimum, observing : “ Some specimens agreeing with those from Cape 
York have the crest feathers much more narrow ; others again, having the 
bill larger and the culmen wider, have the plumes of the crest broader. The 
young have the feathers of the abdomen narrowly margined with yellow, in 
some forming a band across the body.” 
Salvadori, in the Orn. Papua, e Moll., Vol. I., 1880, discussed the species 
Microglossus aterrimus and indicated its division into three varieties, which 
he named (p. 107) var. major, var. intermedia and (p. 108) var. minor. 
To the first he allotted as synonyms the “ Ara gris a Trompe Le Vaill. 
and the Ara noir of the same author. Upon the former was founded Psittacus 
griseus Bechstein, and as subordinate he cited Psittacus goliath Kuhl. To the 
second he added the quotations of Edwards, Montbeillard, aterrimus Gmelin, 
gigas Latham, zeylanicus Ranzani and intermedia Schlegel. 
The third was exactly equivalent to alecto. 
In the text he gave measurements of Sorong birds as follows : — 
dd Wing 390-385 mm. Culmen 132 mm. 
$$ „ 380-373 mm. ,, 108-98 mm. 
He recorded that Salvatti, Waigiou, etc., birds were less, one specimen 
from the last-named locality measuring: wing 325 mm, ; culmen ? 71 mm. 
He further noted that Aru Island specimens were of notably smaller 
dimensions, measuring: 
<?<£ Wing 345-335 mm. Culmen 120-100 mm. 
$$ „ 325-318 mm. ,, 90-85 mm. 
He gave no other bird save the type of alecto as representative of his 
var. minor, the measurements of which are given as : wing 290 mm., 
culmen 66 mm. 
When he wrote up the Monograph in the Catalogue of Birds in the 
British Museum, Vol. XX., in 1891, Salvadori admitted one species only 
under the name Microglossus aterrimus, but noted a var. minor to which he 
allotted only alecto Temminck and Lesson and all references thereto. He 
did not discuss the matter at all, but simply noted : “ The birds from the 
Aru Islands are much smaller than those from New Guinea ; still, the smallest 
specimen I have ever seen was from Waigiou — total length 25.7 inches, 
wing 12.8, tail 9.5, bill 2.7.” 
85 
