Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS

THE PARROTS

Typical Cockatoos

This brings us to the typical Cockatoos (Cacalua), of which there are no less than seventeen species recognized, ranging practically throughout the region covered by the subfamily. As already hinted, these are the most gorgeously plumaged members of the group and the ones most frequently kept in captivity, and in all but one the color is white, often tinged with rosy or sulphur-yellow. Following the disposition of Count Salvadori, it is possible to separate the genus into two well-marked divisions on characters afforded by the crest. In the first of these two divisions, which includes half a dozen splendid species, the feathers of the crest are narrow, each terminating in a slender point which is recurved at the extremity.

The largest of these is the Great Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (C. galerita) of Australia and Tasmania, which attains a length of eighteen or twenty inches, and has the entire plumage white, with the exception of the elongated crest, which is sulphur-yellow. Closely related but not exceeding a length of eighteen inches and having the naked skin about the eyes blue instead of white, is the Papuan Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (C. triton) of the Papuan Islands, while the Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (C. parvula) of the Lesser Sunda Islands is only twelve and a half inches long and has a rather brighter yellow patch on the ears.

Of about the same size and coloration as the last but with all the feathers having a distinctly yellow tinge is Cacatua sulphurea of Celebes and theTogian Islands, but distinguished at once by the orange-yellow crest is the Citron-crested Cockatoo (C. citrinocristata) of the Sumba Islands. In South Australia, as well as in some parts of the interior, occurs the splendid species known as Leadbeater's Cockatoo (C. leadbeateri), a bird about sixteen inches long, with the general plumage white, the forehead, front, and sides of the neck, breast, and abdomen tinged with rose-color, becoming very bright under the wings, while the crest is crimson at the base, yellow on the center, and white at the tip.

The remaining species belong to the second division, in which the crest is composed of feathers that are broadened and not recurved at the tip, one of the best-known examples being the fine White-crested Cockatoo (C. alba) of the Molucca Islands, which has the plumage white throughout; its length is eighteen inches.

In the Bismarck Archipelago the place is taken by an allied form (C. ophthalmica), which is slightly larger and has the inner feathers of the crest yellow and the bare space about the eye blue instead of whitish, while still larger, attaining a length of twenty inches, is the Rose-crested Cockatoo (C. moluccen-sis) of Ceram and Amboyna, in which the entire plumage is rosy-white, with the inner long feathers of the crest edged with orange-vermilion.

Australia is the home of two closely related species, of which we may mention the Blood-stained Cockatoo (C. sanguinea), which has the general plumage white, with the lores and sides of the face stained with patches of blood-red, and the bases of the wing and tail-feathers sulphur-yellow; it is about fourteen inches in length. The only other species that space will permit of mentioning is the beautiful Rose-breasted Cockatoo (C. roseicapilla), which has the upper surface gray, deepening into brown on the extremities of the wings and tail, and becoming nearly white on the rump, while the crown is pale rosy-white and the entire lower surface a deep, rich, rosy-red.

 

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