CACATUA DUCORPSI, Jacq. et Pucker. 
Ducorps’s Cockatoo. 
Cacatoes de Diicorps, Hombr. & Jacq. Voy. Pole Sud, Atlas, pi. 26. fig. 1 (1845). 
Plyctolophiis Du Crops, Bp. Compt. Rend. xxx. p. 138 (1850). — Id. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 156. 
Cacatua ducorpsii, Jacq. et Pucher. Voy. Pole Sud, Zool. i. p. 108 (1853), — Hartl, J. f. 0. 1854, p. 165. — Sclater, 
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 228. — Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, pp. 188, 189, pi. xvii. (nec Proc. Zool, Soc. 
1862, pi. xiv.). — Wall. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 280. — Sclater, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (3) xv. p. 74 
(1865).— Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 184.— Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, pp. 118, 124.— Gray, Hand-1. 
Birds, ii. p. 170 (1870). — Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, pp. 59, 60. — Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov, x. 
p. 25 (1877). — Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. iv. p. 68 (1879). — Salvad. Orn. Papuasia e delle 
Molucche, i. p. 104 (1880). — Sclater, List of Animals in Zool. Gard. p. 312 (1883). 
Cacatua ducrops, Bp. Naumannia, 1856, Consp. Psitt. sp. 269. 
Ducorpsius typus, Bp. Compt. Rend. xliv. p. 537 (1857). 
Cacatua ducorpsii, Gray, List Psitt. Brit. Mus. p. 94 (1859). 
Cacatua {Ducorpsius) ducorpsii, Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Isl. p. 34 (1859). 
} Lophocroa learii, Finsch, Nederl. Tijdschr. v. Dierk. i. Berigten, p. xxiii (1863). 
Cacatua sanguinea (pt.), Schleg. Mus. Pays-Bas, Psittaci, p. 144 (1864). • 
Cacatua triton (pt.), Schleg. Nederl. Tijdschr. v. Dierk. iii. p. 320 (1866). 
Plictoloplms ducorpsii, Finsch, Papag. i. p. 311 (1867). — Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 127. 
Cacatua goffini, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 122, 1875, p. 61, pi. x. — Id. List of Animals in Zool. Gard. 
p. 312 (1883). 
It is to the French discovery-ships ‘ L’Astrolabe ’ and ‘La Zelee,’ which made an expedition towards the 
South Pole in the years 1837-40, that we owe the discovery of this Cockatoo. It was found in the Solomon 
Islands by the naturalists of the expedition, and dedicated by Messrs. Hombron and Jacquinot, the authors 
of the zoological portion of the narrative of the ‘ Voyage au Pole Sud,’ to M. Ducorps, one of the officers 
on board the ‘ Astrolabe.’ 
Little further was known of Ducorps’s Cockatoo until 1864, when a fine pair of the species was received 
alive by the Zoological Society of London, direct from Guadalcanar Island, one of the Solomon group. 
One of these birds was figured by Mr. Sclater in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for that year 
(pi. xvii.), in order to show its distinctness from the larger Cacatua ophthahnica, which Mr. Sclater had 
previously confounded with C. ducorpsi. 
In his well-known work on the Parrots, Dr. Finsch, besides admitting C. ducorpsi as a distinct species, 
also recognized C. goffini, which he had previously described from specimens living in the Zoological 
Gardens of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In some of his remarks in the Zoological Society’s ‘ Proceedings,’ 
Mr. Sclater has likewise treated these two species as distinct, and has even figured a white Cockatoo as 
Cacatua goffini (see P. Z. S. 1875, p. 61, pi. x.). But we believe that he is now conviticed that the 
specimens which he has formerly referred in some cases to C. ducorpsi, and in others to C. goffini, were not 
really distinct, but all belonged to the same species, to which the former title is properly applicable. 
Ducorps’s Cockatoo is a small white species, much resembling the Blood-stained Cockatoo (C. sanguineci) 
figured in the * Birds of Australia,’ vol. v. pi. 3 ; but it is immediately distinguishable by the entire absence 
of any red markings on the face. The naked skin round the eye is nearly circular in form and, in the 
living bird, of a pale blue colour. The basal part of the crest-feathers is reddish orange, with a slight tinge 
of lemon-yellow, sometimes mixed with rosy red towards their summit, which colour, however, is hardly 
seen unless the crest is elevated. The wing- and tail-feathers are likewise stained on the inner webs with 
pale lemon-colour. From the Cockatoo of the Philippine Islands {Cacatua philippinar uni), which is likewise 
closely allied, the present species is at once distinguishable by the absence of the red colour on the vent. 
As regards the supposed occurrence of this species in Queensland, which was stated by Mr. Sclater 
(P. Z. S. 1875, p. 60) on the information of Mr. J. T. Cockerell, Mr. Sclater now believes that there has 
been some error on this point, and that Ducorps’s Cockatoo is absolutely confined to the islands of the 
Solomon group, having so far been met with in Guadalcanar and Savo. 
[R. B. S.] 
