In a letter received from my friend Captain Sturt, he says, “The Rose-breasted Cockatoo is a bird of the low country entirely and limited in the extent of its habitat, never being found in any great number on the banks of the Darling, or rising higher than 600 feet above the level of the sea. It feeds on Salsolæ, and occupies those vast plains which lie immediately to the westward of the Blue Mountains. It has a peculiar flight, and the whole flock turning together show the rose-colour of the under surface with pretty effect.” I have not yet seen specimens of this bird from any part of the Swan River colony, neither did I observe it in any part of South Australia that I visited; the eastern and northern portions of Australia are evidently those most frequented by it.
The eggs, which are white, are generally three in number, about an inch and a half long by an inch and an eighth broad.
The young at first are covered with long, fine downy feathers, which at an early age give place to the colours which characterize the plumage of the adult.
The sexes do not differ in colouring and scarcely in size, but individuals differ considerably in the depth of the tint of the under surface, some being much deeper than others, and in the extent of the bare space round the eye.
Crown of the head pale rosy white; all the upper surface grey, deepening into brown at the extremity of the wings and tail, and becoming nearly white on the rump and upper tail-coverts; sides of the neck, all the under surface from below the eyes and the under surface of the shoulder rich deep rosy red; thighs and under tail-coverts grey; irides rich deep rosy red; orbits brick-red; bill white; feet mealy dark brown.
The figures are of the natural size.
LICMETIS NASICUS.
J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp.
LICMETIS NASICUS.
Long-billed Cockatoo.
Psittacus nasicus, Temm, in Linn. Trans., vol. xiii. p. 115.—Ib. Pl. Col, 331.