Psittacus aterrimus, Gml. Synonyms: Microglossa aterrima, Z. S.; Microglossum griseus, Swns.;

M. ater, Lss.; Solenoglossus ceylanicus, Edws.;

Ara electo Tmm.; Cacatua intermedia, SchlG.; C. aterrima, Vll.;

Psittacus gigas, Lth.; P. Goliah, Khl.

German: Der Schwarze Ararakakadu, Rss.

French: Microglosse noir à trompe.

THAT so remarkable a bird as the Great Black Cockatoo of New Guinea should early have attracted the attention of travellers in its native regions is only natural; for, quite without exception, it is the most extraordinary looking member of the order to which it belongs, namely, that of the Psittaci, as well as of the family Cacatuidœ, of which it constitutes the sole genus Microglossa.

It was described as early as 1707, by the Dutch writer, Van der Meulen, and figured by Peter Schenk, under the name of Corbeau des Indes, both description and plate testifying rather to the imaginative powers of the artist and author, than to their fidelity to nature.

Fifty-seven years later, in 1764, Edwards described it accurately, not however from a living specimen, but from a drawing, which he had received from the Dutch Governor of Ceylon; and twenty-six years afterwards the bird was scientifically named by Gmelin.

Numerous other writers, of different nationalities, have written about this curious Cockatoo; and amongst them we may mention Buffon, whose narratives are so readable, but so little, as a rule, to be depended on for accuracy. Wallace, Lesson, Bechstein, and Meyer have also given more or less circumstantial accounts of the bird, which has been so fully described and beautifully rendered by Gould, in his work on the birds of New Guinea.

The first specimen received by the Zoological Society of London came into their possession in 1861, and another was purchased in 1875, which yet lives in the Parrot House, where it attracts the notice of visitors, no less by its extraordinary appearance than by the comical antics in which it is prone to indulge.

Although the beak of this Cockatoo is of portentous dimensions, the creature shows no disposition to make use of it upon men or things; for it is very gentle and playful with the keeper, and is never to be seen gnawing its cage, as so many of its companions in captivity are in the habit of doing.

The figure given in Jardine's Naturalist's Library, vol. x. page 158, does not do justice to the curious appearance of the bird; which differs in many respects from all the other Cockatoos, especially in the formation of the crest, which is composed of more numerous and more slender feathers than is the case with any other member of the family. Our plate of this bird is drawn from the specimen now to be seen in the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, and could not be more true to life if a photograph.

Although usually said to be a native of New Guinea, the Goliah, or Goliath Aratoo, is also found in the adjacent Islands of Eastern Australasia. Mr. Wallace met with it on the north coast, and Müller in the southern parts of New Guinea, where it attracted his attention by its comical antics among the trees; stooping down and opening its mouth at him as he looked on it with surprise; the deep red colour of the naked cheeks and the bristled plumage testifying to the bird's anger at the intrusion of a white stranger in its haunts, or possibly to its dread of the unknown. It was also seen by Macgillivray at Cape York.

It is curious that the colour of the face should undergo, according to the emotions that for the time animate the creature, changes analagous to the becoming, but sometimes inconvenient, phenomenon known among human beings as blushing; but it actually does blush, not however from shame, or modesty, as in the case of man, but from anger or surprise; though excitement will also give rise to the change of colour, as when it sees the keeper approaching with some "monkey nuts", of which it is particularly fond.

That this avine blushing is of service to the bird, and has been adopted by it as a ruse for striking terror into a foe, as a writer, whom we need not name, pretends, is, to say the least, improbable; and the true explanation of the phenomenon doubtless is, that it results from an involuntary flow of blood to the part through fear, anger, or excitement; rather than from a deliberate action on the part of the bird exerted in self-defence.

The most remarkable fact connected with this strange creature is the smallness of the tongue; which is more like a round pink worm with a blunt black head, than the tongue especially of one of the Parrot tribe. It seems almost lost in the enormous cavern of the mouth, where it rolls about in the most extraordinary manner when the creature is eating.

It is curious to see this Cockatoo take a great beakful of seed, hemp for instance, and lodge it in a kind of pouch under the tongue, from whence it is picked up by that organ, and cracked, grain by grain, until the creature's appetite is satisfied, for it is not a large eater; but, on the contrary, appears to require much less food than from its size might have been supposed. It drinks freely, and is fond of splashing itself with water.

The tips of the crest feathers have a backward inclination, like those of the Moluccan Cockatoos; while those of the Australian Plyctolophi, on the contrary, bend forwards.

This bird has few points in common with the other Cockatoos, and is quite correctly classed as the one species of a distinct genus. There is no very appreciable difference between the plumage and appearance of the male and female, though the latter would appear to have a lesser extent of bare skin on the face, and to be of somewhat smaller size.

The young are said to resemble their parents, with the exception that in the former the beak is of a light yellowish horn-grey, and has the point less developed, and the feathers on the belly, and vent, the inner wing coverts, and the under tail coverts are streaked with faint yellowish lines; but these are points requiring confirmation before they can be implicitly accepted as actual facts.

When sitting in a meditative attitude, as it sometimes does, or when it is asleep, the bare cheeks of the Aratoo are covered by the feathers on the sides of the head; which the bird has the power of using as a mask for its naked face; so that on the whole it may be looked upon as a very human bird, blushing and hiding its face like a bashful girl; but there assuredly the analogy ceases.

It does not talk, neither does it make a great deal of noise, though it can scream of course, for it would not be a Parrot, much less a Cockatoo, if it could not do so; and lustily, when occasion demanded. Happily, however, it does not appear to be possessed of any inordinate desire to let its voice be heard; but must, on the contrary, be considered a quiet respectable creature, that takes no pleasure in annoying people by the undue exercise of a faculty that has its uses no doubt; but is certainly misemployed when rendering its owner a nuisance to the neighbourhood where it happens to be lodged.

It is a solitary bird, generally found singly, or at most in pairs, in the densest forests, where Wallace discovered it living on the fruit of the Canarium commune, the shell of which is so hard, that the nuts are with difficulty broken with a hammer; yet the Black Cockatoo manages to extract the kernel, which would be all but impossible for any other bird to accomplish; and in the process, which is one that takes time, the Black Cockatoo is assisted by its horny-ended tongue as much as by its indented and sharp-pointed beak.

As will be seen by the drawing, the latter organ is very large, with the tip of the upper mandible very long and acute, projecting far beyond the under mandible, which, although of respectable dimensions, is, nevertheless, weak and small in comparison.

The colour of the plumage generally is black, but glossed with a greenish grey tinge; from the quantity of white powder secreted by the skin and interspersed among the feathers.

It has been remarked that these birds vary considerably in size in different museums; but this we think is owing rather to the imperfect mounting of the specimens than to any real difference among the living birds; for the few individuals we have at times been able to observe did not vary much in dimensions. Kuhl, however, considered that the larger birds constituted a distinct species from the lesser, and distinguished the former by the title of Psittacus Goliah, and the latter by that of Psittacus aterrimus.

"But", as Selby very properly remarked, "further observation is required to verify the views of this ornithologist; and for the present we adhere to Wagler's opinion, who considered them identical."

As we have already observed, an inexperienced or careless taxidermist will frequently manipulate his subject in such a manner as to render it almost unrecognisable; now extending the skin to far beyond its natural dimensions; or again, by insufficiently softening it, make it look much smaller than it ought to be, as may be seen by comparing together specimens mounted by different workmen; and that this was the case with the skins examined by Kuhl, who does not appear to have ever seen the bird alive, is more than probable.

The Arara Cockatoo is one of the few birds that maintains a price altogether out of proportion to its merits; for after all has been said there is little to recommend it to the notice of amateurs; yet the dealers demand from £15 to £30 apiece for it, according to Herr Wiener; while Dr. Russ prices the bird at from four hundred and fifty to six hundred marks; and one we saw at Jamrach's, in Ratcliffe Highway, a few years since, was to be purchased for £40; but what that veteran dealer ultimately obtained for his prize we cannot say, probably somewhat less. For our part we should prefer to give £25 or £30 for a Golden Parrot rather than for a Black Cockatoo, whether it hailed from New Guinea, Northern Australia, Papua, Waigesa, or any of the other localities whence it has been recorded; but tastes differ, of course, and other people need not necessarily be of our opinion in this, or any other matter.

The legs of the New Guinea Cockatoo are long and somewhat slender, and the bird hops lightly and freely after the fashion of the New Zealand Parrots, which are especially active on their limbs, no less upon the ground than among the boughs of their favourite trees.

Macgillivray compares the cry of Psittacus aterrimus to the syllables "hweet hweet", and says it altogether lacks the harshness of the notes of the white Cockatoos; while d'Albertis describes it as "a distinct, long drawn out, loud and shrill but melancholy whistle." The two or three specimens of the species we have had under observation, seldom made any sound at all, and appeared to be extremely silent though active and lively birds, fond of being noticed, and gentle and tame; yet, as we have said, they can call out when necessary.

The few individuals of the species that are now and then brought to Europe have been taken from the nest, and brought up by hand by the aborigines, which would account of course for their docility. How a Goliath captured when adult would comport himself in captivity, is a question that remains to be decided, as far that is to say as our experience goes; but most likely it would prove as intractable as the rest of its congeners in similar circumstances.

This bird, though using its foot to convey food to its mouth, does not do so as habitually as the rest of the Cockatoos; proving that it rather feeds on small seeds, which it can hold in its boat-like under mandible, rather than on large nuts or fruit that require a prehensile foot to convey them comfortably to its mouth.

Ornithological nomenclature is often singularly inappropriate and inconclusive, nor in the present instance is it much happier than in many others; some of which have been already cited in these pages, but more of which remain to be noticed. For example, the name "Goliath" or "Goliah", has, we presume, been bestowed upon the bird on account of its size; but the Macaws, the Moluccan and Banksian Cockatoos, are all larger than the New Guinea Cockatoo, and some of them are nearly twice its size, and the same remark applies to the epithet gigas.

The specific name aterrimus, again, is a misnomer, for the Vasa is darker every way, and so are the male Banksian Cockatoos; while to call the poor creature by the name of the dread Alecto, as Temminck has done, is to libel grossly a very engaging, if somewhat peculiar-looking, creature, whose "bark is", infinitely, "worse than its bite."

The designation Aratoo is a compound of Ara, a Macaw and Cockatoo, which is, to say the least, fanciful; for it requires a good deal of imagination to agree with Finsch that it resembles the Arara; all the reader has to do is to ignore its crest, and fancy its tail longer and more pointed, and the metamorphosis is complete; but we cannot agree with the ingenious author of the remark, "Wenn man die Haube fortdenkt, und den Schwanz länger und spitz, so gehört nicht viel Fantasie dazu, um sich einen Arara vorzustellen"; for we think it would require a very great stretch of the imagination indeed.

In conclusion we can strongly recommend the New Guinea Black Cockatoo to amateurs, who need be under no apprehension respecting its character, which is good, we might indeed say excellent; but if any of our readers possess, and have become tired of the bird, we shall be grateful if they will transfer it to our custody, if only for a time; as the price, at present, as far as we are concerned, is absolutely prohibitive.