BLOODSTAINED COCKATOO. 
number of specimens and more than a thousand living examples during the 
last quarter of a century, and have made inquiries from bird catchers and 
dealers, but have failed as yet to discover a bird from any part of Australia 
with the naked skin around the eye white, as Gould figures Cacatua sanguined, 
in his Birds of Australia (Vol. V., pi. 3, 1848). From Dr. W. Macgillivray’s 
notes, however, it will be observed that he has “ seen a few o^d birds, in 
which it was quite white ; whether this was an age change or due to an 
excessive secretion of powder down I am not certain.” Gould described 
the type of Cacatua sanguined in 1842, from a dried skin obtained in 
Northern Australia, and made no reference to the colour of the naked skin 
around the eye, but in his figure of this species this part is represented as 
white. “ . . . . The wing measurement of adult males varies from 10.4 to 
11.75 inches.” 
Simultaneously I examined long series in the preparation of my “ Refer- 
ence List to the Birds of Australia ” (Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., Jan. 1912) 
and found that the variation in size noted by North seemed governed by 
local environment. Consequently I ranged all the birds as subspecies of C. 
sanguined as follows : 
“ p. 265. Cacatoes sanguined sanguinea. Northern Territory, New 
South Wales, South Australia. 
Cacatoes sanguinea distincta subsp. n. 
Differs from C. s. sanguinea in its much superior size. The type of C. s. 
sanguinea has the wing of 259 mm. Birds from Port Essington and also 
Alexandra agree in this measurement, all unsex ed. The males in this species 
are larger than the females, and these give in C. s. distincta J wing 310, $ 290. 
Type : Northern Territory (Alligator River, 60 miles inland). 
Range. Northern Territory (Interior). 
Cacatoes sanguinea subdistincta subsp. n. \\ 
Differs from C. s. distincta in its smaller size, but still absolutely larger 
than C. s. sanguinea : J 292, $ 269-78. G. s. gymnopis from Interior South 
Australia gives wing J 264-5, $ 252-4. 
Type : North-West Australia (Parry’s Creek). 
Range. North-west Australia. 
Cacatoes sanguinea gymnopis. Interior South Australia, West 
Australia.” 
This scheme and distribution was soon seen to be unsatisfactory and 
receiving birds from Melville Island I added ( Austral Av. Bee., Vol. I., p. 36, 
1912). 
207 
