BLOODSTAINED COCKATOO. 
but in each case he had no definite locality attached to his specimens. 
Examinations of the skins in the British Museum enabled him to add as the 
habitat of his new species South Australia, simply because he allotted 
specimens collected by Captain Sturt to his form. This action, by an 
acknowledged authority, has been fruitful of much misconception. Apparently 
the chief item in the confusion was the recognition of Gould’s C. sanguined 
as an Australian bird. 
Australian ornithologists of that day could not understand Sclater’s 
action, as we find Masters ( Proc . Linn. Soc., JV./SMB., II., p. 274, 1878) 
recording Cacatua sanguinea from Port Darwin with the note : “ During the 
month of July this species was to be seen in flocks of thousands.” Just 
previously Castelnau and Kamsay {Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. , I., p. 383, 1877) 
had identified the Northern Territory birds as Cacatua sanguinea , citing 
doubtfully as a synonym C. gymnopis Sclater and writing : “ This species 
was obtained in considerable numbers on the Norman River by Mr. Kendal 
Broadbent in 1875. All the specimens show the same plumage and the 
peculiarity of having the orbits bare, but to a greater extent below than above 
the eye, and vary a little in size. This is undoubtedly the true C. sanguinea 
of Gould. Its range extends from Port Essington, where Mr. Gould’s specimens 
were obtained, round the Gulf of Carpentaria country as far south as the 
Palmer River.” 
However, in 1888, Ramsay admitted both C. sanguinea and C. gymnopis , 
giving almost coincident distribution. In the Cat. Austr. Psittaci, published 
in 1891, he again recorded both but listed no specimens of the latter and 
made a footnote under the name Cacatua goffiii, observing: “Specimens of 
C. sanguinea from the Gulf of Carpentaria are on the whole smaller than 
those from Derby and the North-west Coast generally, an average specimen 
measures as follows:- — Total length 13.5 inches, wing 10.3, tail 6, tarsus \ 0.9, 
midtoe 1.4, bill from forehead 1.25, from nostril 1, culmen 1.2, lower mandible 
from angle 0.8, width across the front cutting edge of ditto 0.35, width at gape 
0.7. ... If Count Salvadori’s description be correct, then C. goffini is only 
a smaller variety of C. sanguinea. If Dr. Finsch’s bird has no red on the lores , 
it may be Dr. Sclater’s C. gymnopis. It is to be hoped that this matter will 
be finally settled in the coming number of the British Museum Catalogue of 
the Psittaci .” 
This appeared the same year and there Salvadori recognised as distinct 
species Cacatua gy?nnopis, C. sanguinea and C. go-ffini. The Bab. of the first- 
named is given as “ South Australia (and also Northern and N.W. Australia ?).” 
Four specimens are listed, one from “ Australia ” and the other three from 
“ S. Australia. Capt. Sturt.” 
205 
