LONGBILLED COCKATOO. 
“ The young birds are very hardy and long lived, making excellent cage 
birds, for which they were formerly in great demand. Please refer to Ibis, 1912, 
p. 627, for fuller account, where the average length of wing of female is wrongly 
given as 12-8 inches, an obvious error from the details given and which is cor- 
rected above.'* 
The notes given in Campbell’s “ Nests and Eggs ” under this species as 
regards the North-west Cape from Mr. Tom Carter refer to the smaller form as 
acknowledged by Campbell in the Emu, Vol. I., p. 25, 1901. 
In the Emu , Vol. XIV., 1915, p. 172, the reverse error seems to have 
occurred, as E. A. Le Souef records Cacatua gywnopis west of Moora “ using 
their long bills to dig up yams in a field.” 
In the next volume, p. 51, Mr. Carter suggests that these must have been 
Licmetis pastinator as it occurs there, whereas there is no previous record of 
the other species. 
D. Le Souef recorded the eggs of Licmetis nasica from Port Darwin, 
but this seems an obvious error for Cacatua sanguinea. 
I make these notes as showing the confusion between the two species, 
commonly recognised as referable to distinct genera, but whose status I have 
just discussed. 
Mr. W. B. Alexander has forwarded me the following interesting account 
of the early history of Licmetis tenuirostris pastinator : “I have never met 
with this species, which is now a rarity in Western Australia, the recent history 
of its rapid decrease in numbers having been dealt with by Mr. T. Carter in 
the Ibis. In compiling a ‘ History of Zoology in Western Australia,’ on 
which I have been engaged for some years, I have been much struck in 
reading accounts of the early days of the Swan River settlement with the 
frequent mention of White Cockatoos, which I presume were of this species. 
It is evident that in 1829 they were quite as plentiful as Black Cockatoos ; 
nowadays I believe they are restricted to a district north of Moora and a small 
isolated colony to the east of the Blackwood River. The changes in the 
distribution of animals which have taken place since the colonisation of 
Western Australia are mostly easily accounted for, but the dwindling of these 
wary forest dwellers is much more difficult to explain. The following are 
among the early references to White Cockatoos, which I believe to refer to 
the present form : ‘ T. W. H. (Harvey ?) who accompanied Ensign Dale in an 
expedition over the Darling Range between Oct. 25 and Nov. 7, 1830, records 
that they saw ‘ many White Cockatoos ’ and adds : ‘ The White Cockatoo 
appears to live on what it takes from the ground, whether insects or roots I 
am not able to say. The black kind live on the buds of large trees and shrubs ” 
(Stirling, Sir J., Journals of Several Expeditions made in Western Australia, 
221 
