THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
and Nodder boldly claimed it to be a very distinct species. Almost at once 
the former repented his boldness, as in the Museum Leverianum he depreciated 
the species and refers to it as a variation of magni ficus, his name for banksii. 
In 1801, Latham ranked the Funereal Cockatoo of Shaw and Nodder as 
var. C., only of his own Banksian Cockatoo, and examination of the Watling 
drawings made him rank figures of funereus as varieties also. Thus as 
related under the heading of C. banksii the first and the fourthly of the 
Second Suppl., p. 92, are based on drawings of this species. Moreover, these 
two drawings are rather obviously made from the same specimen by two 
different painters. The first is signed Thos. Watling, the other unsigned. 
The notes on the drawings read : No. 52 (the first), “ From the tip of the 
beak to the tip of the tail 2 feet 8 inches. Native name Karratt. All the 
varieties of the Black Cockatoos are so called ; this is the most uncommon 
bird.” No. 56 (the fourthly), “ Native name Karrott. A rare genus. Half 
the size nature.” By a peculiar oversight when Sharpe published his account 
of the Watling drawings he referred all the drawings to C. banksii. Never- 
theless, from the descriptions alone Ramsay and Salvadori had correctly 
referred these varieties to the present species. 
A similar oversight was perpetrated by myself when I retained this 
species in Calyptorhynchus in my “List of the Birds of Australia,” though 
separating baudinii under the genus Zanda. This species is absolutely 
congeneric with baudinii and is therefore referable to Zanda, and moreover 
I suggest that they may later be considered as only sub specifically distinct. 
Captain J. A. White’s notes read : “ G. f. funereus. We saw numbers 
of these birds at Mallacoota Inlet, Victoria, near the borders of New South 
Wales. They were feeding upon the seed of the sword bush, this plant 
always growing on the sand dunes near the coast. 
C. /. whitece v as once a very common bird all along the South Australian 
coast line ; it is still to be met with in small parties amidst the heavily- 
timbered parts of the Mt. Lofty Ranges, but not nearly in such numbers as in 
days gone by. They still move about amongst the ranges according to food 
supply. After a bush fire has swept over a piece of country, and should there 
be Hakea or Banksia growing upon it, these black Cockatoos will congregate 
in numbers to feed upon the roasted seeds of these plants, and which crack 
open after the fire passes over. They breed in the big gums in some secluded 
spot, and lay their round white eggs upon the bare wood in the hollow. One 
often comes upon the Acacia and Hakea boughs bitten through, and bark 
pulled off, when these birds have been searching for the larvae of boring beetles. 
From observation I have found that these birds breed in late October or 
November and that both parent birds feed the young. 
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