From CHAPTER XXXI THE ARU ISLANDS - JOURNEY AND RESIDENCE IN THE INTERIOR (MARCH TO MAY 1857)
This cockatoo is the first I have seen, and is a great prize. It has a rather small and weak body, long weak legs, large wings, and an enormously developed head, ornamented with a magnificent crest, and armed with a sharp-pointed hoofed bill of immense size and strength. The plumage is entirely black, but has all over it the curious powdery white secretion characteristic of cockatoo. The cheeks are bare, and of an intense blood-red colour. Instead of the harsh scream of the white cockatoos, its voice is a somewhat plaintive whistle. The tongue is a curious organ, being a slender fleshy cylinder of a deep red colour, terminated by a horny black plate, furrowed across and somewhat prehensile. The whole tongue has a considerable extensile power. http://www.papuaweb.org/dlib/bk/wallace/papuan.html#ill-35
Caption reads "HEAD OF BLACK COCKATOO"
Date 1869
Source 1890 (10th) edition, from PapuaWeb
Author Drawn on wood by T. W. Wood
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malay_Archipelago_Black_Cockatoo.jpg
The palm cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus), also known as the goliath cockatoo or great black cockatoo, is a large smoky-grey or black parrot of the cockatoo family native to New Guinea, Aru Islands and Cape York Peninsula. It has a very large black beak and prominent red cheek patches. |
