CACATUA LEADBEATERIL, wae

Leadbeater’s Cockatoo.

Plyctolophus Leadbeateri, Vig. in Proc. of Comm. of Sci. and Corr. of Zool. Soc., Part I. p.61; Lear’s Ill. Psitt.
pl. 5; and in Phil. Mag. 1831, p. 55.—Gould in Syn. of Birds of Australia, Part IV.—Mitch. Au-
stralian Expeditions, vol. ii. p. 47.

Cacatua Leadbeateri, Wag]. Mon. Psitt. in Abhand., p. 692.

Jak-kul-yak-kul, Aborigines of the mountain districts of Western Australia.

Pink Cockatoo, Colonists of Swan River.

 

Tuts beautiful species of Cockatoo enjoys a wide range over the southern portions of the Australian conti-
nent; it never approaches very near the sea, but evinces a decided preference for the belts of lofty gums
and scrubs clothing the sides of the rivers of the interior of the country; it annually visits the Toodyay
district of Western Australia; and, as I ascertained, it annually breeds at Gawler in South Australia. On
reading the works of Sturt and Mitchell, I find that both those travellers met with it in the course of their
explorations, particularly on the banks of the rivers Darling and Murray; in fact, most of the interior
districts between New South Wales and Adelaide are inhabited by it: future research alone will determine
the extent of its range to the northward; as yet no specimen has been received either from the north or
north-west coasts.

It must be admitted that this species is at once the most beautiful and elegant of the genus yet dis-
covered, and it will consequently ever be most highly prized for the cage and the aviary; two examples,
now in the possession of the Earl of Derby, appear to bear confinement equally as well as any of their
congeners ; in their disposition they are not so sprightly and animated, but at the same time they are much
less noisy, a circumstance which tends to enhance rather than decrease our partiality for them.

Few birds tend more to enliven the monotonous hues of the Australian forests than this beautiful species,
whose “ pink-coloured wings and glowing crest,” says Sir T. Mitchell, ‘ might have embellished the air of
a more voluptuous region.”

Its note is more plaintive than that of C. galerita, and does not partake of the harsh grating sound pecu-
liar to that species.

General plumage white; forehead, front and sides of the neck, centre of the under surface of the wing,
middle of the abdomen, and the basal portion of the inner webs of the tail-feathers tinged with rose-colour,
becoming of a rich salmon-colour under the wing ; feathers of the occipital crest crimson at the base, with
a yellow spot in the centre and white at the tip; bill light horn-colour ; feet dark brown.

The sexes are nearly equal in size; but the female has the yellow spots in the centre of the crest more
conspicuous and better defined than her mate, whose crest, although larger, is not so diversified in colour as
that of his mate ; on the other hand, the salmon tint of the under surface is much more intense in the male
than in the female.

The Plate represents the two sexes about the natural size.