27 
OCKATOO. 
Psittacus nasica, Euss. 
Synonyms: Psittacus nasicus, Plyctolophus tenuirostris, Cacatua nasica, 
Licmetis tenuirostris, Licmetis nasicus, etc. Geeman : Per Nasenlcalcadu. 
I T is certainly a bad plan to allow oneself to be prejudiced by another 
person against anything of which one has no personal knowledge^ 
and this we admit to have been our case with regard to the Slender- 
billed Oockatooj- of which Mr. Gedney wrote: “I confess to a feeling 
of dislike towards these birds, which nothing can overcome, not that 
I object to long-nosed creatures as a rule, for nature has been some- 
what liberal to me in the matter of nose : but these Cockatoos are morose 
and spiteful in disposition, querulous, excitable, and uneasy in their 
manners when kept as cage pets, and strongly addicted to shrieking 
at all seasons.” 
So strong was our prejudice against this Cockatoo, engendered solely 
by a perusal of the above quoted remarks, that for a long time we 
refused to believe that anything good could be said of or for it: but 
we were mistaken, as we shall presently make it appear: not that we 
doubt Mr. Gedney^s account of the individuals of the species that 
chanced to come into his possession, but, as in our own experience 
with the Eosy Cockatoo, his birds were probably unfortunate specimens 
of their race, and by no means to be considered as typical thereof. 
Like the Eosy one, the Slender-billed has very little real claim to 
be called a Cockatoo, for he has no crest to speak of, but as he also 
has the power to raise the short head feathers, he has been placed in 
that branch of the Parrot family, which the older naturalists distinguished 
by the generic name Plyctolophus ; although as the reader of the list 
of synonyms placed at the head of this article will have doubtless noticed, 
these short-crested Cockatoos have been constituted a genus by them- 
selves, and received the name of lAcmetis from Wagler, Gray, and 
others; but to our notion Dr. Euss^s plan of placing all the members 
