_J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
CACATUA GALERITA, _Vieill._
Crested Cockatoo.
_The Crested Cockatoo_, White’s Journ., pl. in p. 237.
_Psittacus galeritus_, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 109; and Gen. Syn.
Supp., vol. ii. p. 92.—Kuhl, Consp. Psitt. in Nov. Act., vol. x. p.
87.
_Great Sulphur-crested Cockatoo_, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 479.
_Crested Cockatoo_, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 205.
_Cacatua galerita_, Vieill. 2nde Edit, du Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat.,
tom. xvii. p. 11; and Ency. Méth. Orn., Part III. p. 1414.—Wagl.
Mon. Psitt. in Abhand., p. 695.
_Plyctolophus galeritus_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p.
268.—Vig. in Lear’s Ill. Psitt. pl. 3.—Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen.
Zool., vol. xiv. p. 108.
_Cacatua chrysolophus_, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 182.
_Car’away_ and _Cur’riang_, Aborigines of New South Wales.
_Mangarape_, Papuans of New Guinea.
If we regard the White Cockatoo of Van Diemen’s Land, that of the
continent of Australia, and that of New Guinea as mere varieties of each
other, this species has a more extensive range than most other birds. It
is an inhabitant of all the Australian colonies, both on the southern
and northern coasts, but has not yet been observed on the western.
On a close examination of specimens from the three countries above
mentioned, a decided difference is observable in the structure of the
bill, but of too trivial a character, in my opinion, to warrant their
being considered as distinct; in fact, it would seem to be merely a
modification of the organ for the peculiar kind of food afforded by the
respective countries. The Van Diemen’s Land bird is the largest in every
respect, and has the bill, particularly the upper mandible, less
abruptly curved, exhibiting a tendency to the form of that organ in the
genus _Licmetis_: the bill of the New Guinea bird is much rounder, and
is, in fact, fitted to perform a totally different office from that of
the White Cockatoo of Van Diemen’s Land, which I have ascertained, by
dissection, subsists principally on the small bulbs of the terrestrial
_Orchidaceæ_, for procuring which its lengthened upper mandible is
admirably adapted; while it is more than probable that no food of this
kind is to be obtained by the New Guinea bird, the structure of whose
bill indicates that hard seeds, nuts, &c. constitute the principal part
of its diet. The crops and stomachs of those killed in Van Diemen’s Land
were very muscular, and contained seeds, grain, native bread (a species
of fungus), small tuberous and bulbous roots, and, in most instances,
large stones.
As may be readily imagined, this bird is not upon favourable terms with
the agriculturist, upon whose fields of newly-sown grain and ripening
maize it commits the greatest devastation; it is consequently hunted and
shot down wherever it is found, a circumstance which tends much to
lessen its numbers; it is still, however, very numerous, moving about in
flocks varying from a hundred to a thousand in number, and evinces a
decided preference to the open plains and cleared lands, rather than to
the dense brushes near the coast. Except when feeding, or reposing on
the trees after a repast, the presence of a flock, if not seen, is
certain to be indicated by their horrid screaming notes, the discordance
of which may be slightly conceived by those who have heard the
peculiarly loud, piercing, grating scream of the bird in captivity,
always remembering the immense increase of the din occasioned by the
large number of birds emitting their disagreeable notes at the same
moment; still I ever considered this annoyance amply compensated for by
their sprightly actions and the life their snowy forms imparted to the
dense and never-varying green of the Australian forest; a feeling
participated in by Sir Thomas Mitchell, who says that “amidst the
umbrageous foliage, forming dense masses of shade, the white Cockatoos
sported like spirits of light.”
The situations chosen by this bird for the purpose of nidification vary
with the nature of the locality it inhabits; the eggs are usually
deposited in the holes of trees, but they are also placed in fissures in
the rocks wherever they may present a convenient site: the crevices of
the white cliffs bordering the Murray, in South Australia, are annually
resorted to for this purpose by thousands of this bird, and are said to
be completely honeycombed by them. The eggs are two in number, of a pure
white, rather pointed at the smaller end, one inch and seven lines long
by one inch two and a half lines broad.
All the plumage white, with the exception of the elongated occipital
crest, which is deep sulphur-yellow, and the ear-coverts, centre of the
under surface of the wing, and the basal portion of the inner webs of
the tail-feathers, which are pale sulphur-yellow; irides and bill black;
orbits white; feet greyish brown.
The figures are somewhat smaller than the natural size.
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