Part 11

I found it exceedingly difficult to obtain any particulars respecting the nidification of this bird, in consequence of its resorting for the performance of this duty to the most retired and inaccessible parts of the forests. Lieut. Breton, R.N., having informed me that a pair were breeding in a tree on the estate of Mr. Wettenhall, I requested him to use his influence with that gentleman to have their eggs procured for me, and on the 2nd of February 1839, I received a note from him in which he says:—

“In compliance with your request, I wrote to Mr. Wettenhall upon the subject of the Black Cockatoo’s nest, and he forthwith directed his shepherd to fell the tree in which the bird had established itself. It was situated in a gulley or bottom, and was about four feet and a half in diameter. The hole was from ninety to one hundred feet from the ground, two feet in depth, and made quite smooth, the heart of the tree being decayed. There was no appearance whatever of a nest. The tree was broken in pieces by the fall, and the contents of the hole or nest destroyed; the fragments, however, were sought for with the greatest care, and all that could be found are sent you. It may perhaps be as well to state, that both while the tree was being felled and for a short time afterwards, a Hawk kept attacking the Cockatoo, which flew in circles round the tree before it fell, uttering its loudest and most mournful notes, and at times turning upon the Hawk, until at length it flew off.”

The eggs are white, from two to four in number, and one inch and eight lines long by one inch and four lines broad.

The bird varies considerably in size and weight, some specimens weighing as much as one pound and ten ounces, while others weighed no more than one pound and three ounces.

The sexes, which differ but little from each other, may be thus described:—

Crown of the head, cheeks, throat, upper and under surface brownish black; feathers of the breast obscurely tipped with dull olive; ear-coverts yellow; two centre tail-feathers deep blackish brown, the remainder black at the base and tips, the central portion being in some specimens uniform light lemon-yellow, and in others the same colour blotched with spots and markings of brown; bill in some specimens white, in others blackish brown; feet greyish brown; orbits in some black, in others pink; irides nearly black.

I believe the birds with white bills to be immature.

The figures are about two-thirds of the natural size.

CALYPTORHYNCHUS BAUDINII: Vig.

J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp. ]

CALYPTORHYNCHUS BAUDINII, Vig. Baudin’s Cockatoo.

Calyptorhynchus Baudinii, Vig. in Lear’s Ill. Psitt., pl. 6.

Oo-l̏aak of the Aborigines of the lowland, and

Ngol-y̏e-nuk of the Aborigines of the mountain districts of Western Australia.

White-tailed Black Cockatoo of the Colonists.

This species, which is a native of Western Australia, is distinguished from all the other known members of the group by its smaller size and by the white markings of its tail-feathers. It belongs to that section of the Black Cockatoos in which a similarity of marking characterizes both sexes, such as Calyptorhynchus funereus and C. xanthonotus. Like the other members of the genus it frequents the large forests of Eucalypti and the belts of Banksiæ, upon the seeds of which it mainly subsists; occasionally it seeks its food on the ground, when insects, fallen seeds, &c. are equally partaken of; the larvæ of moths and other insects are also extracted by it from the trunks and limbs of such trees as are infested by them.

Its flight is heavy and apparently laboured: when on the wing it frequently utters a note very similar to its aboriginal name; at other times when perched on the trees it utters a harsh croaking sound, which is kept up all the time the bird is feeding.

It breeds in the holes of the highest white gum-trees, often in the most dense and retired part of the forest. The eggs are generally two in number, of a pure white; their average length being one inch and three-quarters by one inch and three-eighths in breadth. The breeding-season extends over the months of October, November and December.

Up to the time of writing this account I have never seen specimens from any other part of Australia than the colony of Swan River, over the whole of which it seems to be equally distributed.

The entire plumage is blackish brown, glossed with green, especially on the forehead; all the feathers narrowly tipped with dull white; ear-coverts creamy white; all but the two central tail-feathers crossed by a broad band, equal to half their length, of cream-white; the external web of the outer primary and the margin of the external web of the other banded feathers blackish brown; the shafts black; irides blackish brown; bill lead-colour; in some specimens the upper mandible is blackish brown; legs and feet dull yellowish grey, tinged with olive.

The figure represents a male about three-fourths of the natural size.

CALLOCEPHALON GALEATUM.

J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp. ]

CALLOCEPHALON GALEATUM. Gang-gang Cockatoo.

Psittacus galeatus, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp. p. xxiii.—Kuhl, Consp. Psitt, in Nova Acta, tom. x. p. 88.

Red-crowned Parrot, Lath. Gen. Syn., Supp. vol. ii. p. 369. pl. 140.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 523.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 218. pl. xxviii.

Calyptorhynchus galeatus, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 274.—Less. Man. d’Orn., tom. ii. p. 144.

Corydon galeatus, Wagl. Mon. Psitt. in Abhand., vol. i. pp. 504 and 690.