WHITE COCKATOO. 
as a well-defined subspecies, being moreover confined to the islands south-east 
of New Guinea. See Nov. Zool., III., p. 246, V., p. 531.” 
Reference to Nov. Zool., V., p. 531, gives the following note : “ The 
Sudest Island Cockatoo is exactly the same as the one from Fergusson (Nov. 
Zool., III., p. 246). It differs considerably from G. triton triton in its much 
smaller size. Another smaller subspecies, intermediate between G. triton 
triton and G. triton maerolopha or equal to the latter, is the form from the 
Western Papuan Islands. The Sudest Island birds measure as follows : wings 
268-292, tail 150-155, bill from nostril to tip of maxilla 34-35 mm.” 
Dealing with a collection of North Queensland birds, Messrs. Robinson 
and Laverock in the Ibis, 1900, p. 642, recorded : Cacatua galerita triton. 
“ Two specimens from Cooktown and five from Cairns. 
“ Regarding the specimens from Cairns, Mr. Olive writes : “ Plentiful but 
very shy ; generally in flocks, but sometimes in pairs and singly. I have 
counted nearly 200 roosting in the trees close together ; in the morning they 
separate and go out in small flocks to their feeding grounds and return to their 
roosting place after sunset. They nip off all the leaves and smaller twigs from 
the trees on which they roost. Iris brown ; feet and bill black ; bare skin on 
the face bluish-white ” (Olive). At least five forms of the larger Sulphur-crested 
Cockatoo have been described at different times, viz. : — 
C. galerita. Australia. 
C. licmetorhyncha. Tasmania. 
Central Dutch New Guinea. 
Western Papuan Islands and Aru Islands. 
Louisiades and D’Entrecasteaux Group. 
“ If all these forms, which are mainly founded on differences in dimensions, 
and only two of which, C. galerita and C. triton, are generally recognized, are 
to be maintained, it becomes a question to which of them our specimens yuth 
the wing 311-330 mm. are to be referred. The colour of the skin round the 
eye, noted by Mr. Olive as bluish-white, seems to indicate an approach to the 
race occurring at Port Moresby, C. triton auct., to which species a female col- 
lected by Dr. Coppinger at Hammond Island, Torres Straits, has been referred 
by Salvadori. In addition, the yellow tinge on the ear coverts is less marked 
than in specimens from more southern parts of Australia. There is no doubt 
that if all the forms cited were inhabitants of one continental area, it would be 
considered by many unnecessary to distinguish specifically even such markedly 
different forms as C. trobriandi and C. galerita. If we compare specimens from 
Northern New Guinea with others from Tasmania or New South Wales the 
difference in dimensions is sufficiently striking, whilst the bare parts are also 
differently coloured. According to Salvadori, however (Orn. Pap., I., p. 95), 
C. triton. 
C. macrolopha. 
G . trobriandi. 
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