CACATUA DUCORPSI, Jacq. et Pucher.

Ducorps’s Cockatoo.

Cacatoes de Ducorps, Hombr. & Jacq. Voy. Pédle Sud, Atlas, pl. 26. fig. 1 (1845)

Plyctolophus Du Crops, Bp. Compt. Rend. xxx. p. 138 (1850).—Id. Rev. et ee de Zool. 1854, p. 156

Cacatua ducorpsu, Jacq. et Pucher. Voy. Péle Sud, Zool. i. p. 108 (1853).—Hartl. J. f. O 1854 ; oe x lat
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 228.—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, pp. 188, 189 nt xvii Ge rhc Zool a
1862, pl. xiv.).—Wall. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 280.—Sclater, Ann. & Mag Nat Hist (3) = a
(1865).—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 184.—Id. Proc. Zool. Soe. 1869, pp. 118 124 ae eee
Birds, i. p. 170 (1870).—Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, pp. 59, 60.—Salvad. fon ne Civ a
p- 25 (1877).—Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. iv. p. 68 (1879).—Salvad. on Poe e delle
Molucche, i. p. 104 (1880).—Sclater, List of Animals in Zool. Gard. p. 312 (1883). —

Cacatua ducrops, Bp. Naumannia, 1856, Consp. Psitt. sp. 269.

Ducorpsius typus, Bp. Compt. Rend. xliv. p. 537 (1857).

Cacatua ducorpsu, Gray, List Psitt. Brit. Mus. p. 94 (1859).

Cacatua (Ducorpsius) ducorpsu, Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Isl. p. 34 (1859).

? Lophocroa learit, Finsch, Nederl. Tijdschr. v. Dierk. i. Berigten, p. xxiii (1863).

Cacatua sanguinea (pt.), Schleg. Mus. Pays-Bas, Psittaci, p. 144 (1864).

Cacatua triton (pt.), Schleg. Nederl. Tijdschr. v. Dierk. iii. p. 320 (1866).

Plictolophus ducorpsit, Finsch, Papag. i. p. 311 (1867).—Id. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 127.

Cacatua goffini, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 122, 1875, p. 61, pl. x.—-Id. List of Animals in Zool. Gard.
p. 312 (1883).

 

Ir is to the French discovery-ships ‘L’ Astrolabe’ and ‘La Zélée,’ which made an expedition towards the
South Pole in the years 1837-40, that we owe the discovery of this Cockatoo. It was found in the Solomon
Islands by the naturalists of the expedition, and dedicated by Messrs. Hombron and Jacquinot, the authors
of the zoological portion of the narrative of the ‘ Voyage au Pole Sud,’ to M. Ducorps, one of the officers
on board the ‘ Astrolabe.’

Little further was known of Ducorps’s Cockatoo until 1864, when a fine pair of the species was received
alive by the Zoological Society of London, direct from Guadalcanar Island, one of the Solomon group.
One of these birds was figured by Mr. Sclater in the Zoological Society's ‘Proceedings’ for that year
(pl. xvii.), in order to show its distinctness from the larger Cacatua ophthalmica, which Mr. Sclater had
previously confounded with C. ducorpsi.

In his well-known work on the Parrots, Dr. Finsch, besides admitting C. ducorpsi as a distinct species,
also recognized C. goffini, which he had previously described from specimens living in the Zoological
Gardens of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In some of his remarks in the Zoological Society’s ‘ Proceedings,’

Mr. Sclater has likewise treated these two species as distinct, and has even figured a white Cockatoo as

Cacatua goffini (see P. Z. S. 1875, p. 61, pl. x.). But we believe that he is now convinced that the
specimens which he has formerly referred sn some cases to C. ducorpsi, and in others to C. goffini, were not
really distinct, but all belonged to the same species, to which the former title is properly applicable. |

Ducorps’s Cockatoo is a small white species, much resembling the Blood-stained Cockatoo (¢. sanguinea)
figured in the ‘ Birds of Australia,’ vol. v. pl. 35 but it is immediately distinguishable by the entire absence
The naked skin round the eye 1s nearly circular in form and, in the

of any red markings on the face. ‘ :
s reddish orange, with a slight tinge

living bird, of a pale blue colour. The basal part of the crest-feathers 1 i
red towards their summit, which colour, however, 1s hardly

d tail-feathers are likewise stained on the inner webs with
(Cacatua philippinarum), which is likewise

of lemon-yellow, sometimes mixed with rosy
seen unless the crest is elevated. The wing- an
pale lemon-colour. From the Cockatoo of the Philippine Islands
closely allied, the present species is at once distinguishable by the absence of the red colour on the oa

As regards the supposed occurrence of this species in Queensland, which was stated oe oe fo
(P. Z. S. 1875, p. 60) on the information of Mr. J. T. Cockerell, Mr. Sclater now believes tk 5 i .
been some error on this point, and that Ducorps absolutely confined to the islands of the

anar and Savo.

Solomon group, having so far been met with in Guadale [R. B. 8.]

*s Cockatoo is