Part 7

Licmetis tenuirostris, Wagl. Mon. Psitt, in Abhand., vol. i. pp. 505 and 695.—G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd edit. p. 69.

Psittacus tenuirostris, Kuhl in Nov. Acta, tom. x. p. 88.

Cacatua nasica, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 183.

Plyctolophus tenuirostris, Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xiv. p. 108.

The Red-vented Cockatoo, Brown’s Ill., p. 10. pl. 5.

As I regard the Long-billed White Cockatoos from Western Australia and New South Wales as distinct, the habitat of the present species, so far as is yet known, is confined to the districts of Port Philip and South Australia, where it inhabits the interior rather than the neighbourhood of the coast. Like the common Cacatua galerita, it assembles in large flocks and spends much of its time on the ground, where it grubs up the roots of Orchids and other bulbous plants upon which it mainly subsists, and hence the necessity for its singularly-formed bill. It not unfrequently makes inroads to the newly-sown fields of corn, where it is the most destructive bird imaginable. It passes over the ground in a succession of hops, much more quickly than the Cacatua galerita; its powers of flight also exceed those of that bird, not perhaps in duration, but in the rapidity with which it passes through the air. I noticed this particularly when a flock passed me in the interior of South Australia. I have seen many individuals of this species in captivity, both in New South Wales and in this country; and although they appear to bear confinement equally as well as the other members of the family, they seemed more dull and morose, and of a very irritable temper.

The eggs, which are white, two in number, and about the size of those of the Cacatua galerita, are usually deposited on a layer of rotten wood at the bottom of holes in the larger gum-trees.

The sexes are alike in colour and size.

The general plumage white, washed with pale brimstone-yellow on the under surface of the wing, and with bright brimstone-yellow on the under surface of the tail; line across the forehead and lores scarlet; the feathers of the head, neck and breast are also scarlet at the base, showing through the white, particularly on the breast; irides light brown; bill white; naked skin round the eye greenish blue; legs and feet dull olive-grey.

The two figures in the accompanying Plate are rather less than the natural size.

NESTOR PRODUCTUS. (Gould)

Drawn from Nature & on stone by J & E Gould. Printed by C. Hullmandel. ]

NESTOR PRODUCTUS, Gould. Phillip Island Parrot.

Wilson’s Parrakeet, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 170.?

Long-billed Parrakeet, Ib., p. 171.?

Plyctolophus productus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part IV. 1836, p. 19.

Nestor productus, Gould, Syn. of the Birds of Australia, Part I.

I have considerable pleasure in being enabled to add a second and so beautiful a species as the present to the genus Nestor of Wagler. Like its near ally, the N. hypopolius, which, so far as is yet known, is only found in New Zealand, the N. productus has a very limited habitat, the entire race, as I am credibly informed, being confined to Phillip Island, whose whole circumference is not more than five miles in extent; so strictly in fact is it confined to this isolated spot, that many persons who have resided in Norfolk Island for years, have assured me its occurrence there is never known, although the distance from one island to the other is not more than three or four miles. I regret to state, that, in consequence of the settlement of Norfolk Island, the native haunts of this fine bird have been so intruded upon, and such a war of extermination been carried on against it, that if such be not the case already, the time is not far distant when the species will be completely extirpated, and, like the Dodo, its skin and bones become the only mementos of its existence.

Had I been able to visit Norfolk and Phillip Islands, I should certainly have made every inquiry into the native habits and economy of this very singular form among the Parrots, the nature of its food, mode of procuring it, &c.; and I would now urge the necessity of these investigations upon those who may be favourably situated for making them. Like all the other members of the extensive family of Psittacidæ, it bears captivity remarkably well, readily becoming contented, cheerful, and an amusing companion. During my stay at Sydney, I had an opportunity of seeing a living example in the possession of Major Anderson, and was much interested with many of its actions, which were so different from those of every other member of its family, that I felt convinced they were equally different and curious in a state of nature. This bird was not confined to a cage, but permitted to range over the house, along the floors of which it passed, not with the awkward waddling gait of a Parrot, but in a succession of leaps, precisely after the manner of the Corvidæ. Mrs. Anderson, to whom I am indebted for the little I could learn respecting it, informed me that it is found among the rocks and upon the loftiest trees of the island, that it is so tame as to be readily taken alive with a noose, and that it feeds upon the blossoms of the white-wood tree, or white Hibiscus, sucking the honey of the flowers: the mention of this latter circumstance induced me to examine the tongue of the bird, which presented a very peculiar structure, not, like that of the true honey-feeding Parrakeets (the Trichoglossi), furnished with a brush-like termination, but with a narrow horny scoop on the under side, which, together with the extremity of the tongue, resembled the end of a finger with the nail beneath instead of above: this peculiarity in the structure of the organ is doubtless indicative of a corresponding peculiarity in the nature of the food upon which the bird subsists. I may mention that Sir J. P. Millbank, Bart., informed me that a living example of this species in his possession evinced a strong partiality to the leaves of the common lettuce and other soft vegetables, and that it was also very fond of the juice of fruits, of cream and butter.

Mrs. Anderson told me that it lays four eggs in the hollow part of a tree, but beyond this I was unable to ascertain anything respecting its nidification.

Its voice is a hoarse, quacking, inharmonious noise, sometimes resembling the barking of a dog.

It would appear from the numerous specimens I have examined that the sexes scarcely differ from each other in colour; the young, on the contrary, have but little of the rich yellow and red markings of the breast, that part being olive-brown like the back.

The general colour of the upper surface brown; head and back of the neck tinged with grey, the feathers of these parts as well as of the back margined with a deeper tint; rump, belly, and under tail-coverts deep red; cheeks, throat, and chest yellow, the former tinged with red; shoulders on their inner surface yellow tinged with rufous olive; tail-feathers banded at the base with orange-yellow and brown; the inner webs of the quill-feathers at the base and beneath, with dusky red and brown; irides very dark brown; bill brown; nostrils, bare skin round the eye, and feet dark olive-brown.

Our Plate represents an old and a nearly adult bird, exhibiting traces of the immature plumage on the chest, of the natural size.

CALYPTORHYNCHUS BANKSII.

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

CALYPTORHYNCHUS BANKSII. Banksian Cockatoo.

Psittacus Banksii, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 107.—Ib. Gen. Syn., p. 63, p. 109.—Parkinson’s Voy., p. 144.—Cook’s Voy., vol. ii. p. 18.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 476.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 199. pl. 27 (female).