CALYPTORHYNCHUS FUNEREUS.
J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp.
CALYPTORHYNCHUS FUNEREUS.
Funereal Cockatoo.
Psittacus funereus, Shaw, Nat. Misc., pl. 186.—Kuhl, Consp. Psitt. in. Nova Acta, etc., vol. x. p. 89.—Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl., vol. i. p. xxii.
Funereal Cockatoo, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 202.
Banksian Cockatoo, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl., vol. i. p. 91. C.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 477.
Calyptorhynchus funereus, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 271.
Plyctolophus funeralis, Swains. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 302.
Wy-la, Aborigines of the Upper Hunter in New South Wales.
Although not the most powerful in its mandibles, the present bird is the largest species of the genus to which it belongs, its large wings and expansive tail being unequalled by those of any other member of the great family of Psittacidæ yet discovered. The true habitat of the Calyptorhynchus funereus is New South Wales, or that portion of the Australian continent forming its south-eastern division. Among other places, I observed it in the neighbourhood of Sydney, at Bong-bong, on Mosquito Island near the mouth of the River Hunter, and on the Liverpool range; and it may be said to be universally distributed over this part of the continent. The thick brushes clothing the mountain sides and bordering the coast-line, the trees of the plains and the more open country are equally frequented by it; at the same time it is nowhere very numerous, but is usually met with associated in small companies of from four to eight in number, except during the breeding season, when it is only to be seen in pairs. Its food is much varied; sometimes the great belts of Banksias are visited, and the seed-covers torn open for the sake of their contents; while at others it searches with avidity for the larvæ of the large caterpillars which are deposited in the wattles and gums. Its flight, as might be expected, is very heavy, flapping and laboured, but it sometimes dives about between the trees in a most rapid and extraordinary manner.