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Cacatua Leadbeteri
Artists: John Gould (1804–1881) and Henry Constantine Richter (1821-1902)
Printed by: Charles Hullmandel
1848
Source: Gould, plate 2
Gould's wife Elizabeth had died of puerperal fever in 1840 after bearing him eight children, but work continued apace, with the zoological illustrator H. C. Richter replacing her in December 1841 (see Russell 68), and adopting a similar style. [Commentary continues below.]
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Gould was now the author of the descriptions, and these showed his own "keen intelligence" (Russell 8), augmented in the Australian volumes by knowledge gleaned from two aborigines, Natty and Jemmy, who had accompanied the Goulds on their expeditions, and from his unfortunate assistant, John Gilbert, killed in 1845 while still collecting specimens. In evidence too is his wide reading in ornithological papers and books.
This beautiful species of Cockatoo enjoys a wide range over the southern portions of the Australian continent; it never approaches very near the sea, hut evinces a decided preference for the belts of lofty gums and scrubs clothing the sides of the rivers of the interior of the country; it annually visits the Toodyay district of Western Australia; and, as I ascertained, it annually breeds at Gawler in South Australia. On reading the works of Sturt and Mitchell, I find that both those travellers met with it in the course of their explorations, particularly on the hanks of the rivers Darling and Murray; in fact, most of the interior districts between New South Wales and Adelaide are inhabited by it; future research alone will determine the extent of its range to the northward; as yet no specimen has been received either from the north or north-west coasts.
It must be admitted that this species is at once the most beautiful and elegant of the genus yet discovered, and it will consequently ever be most highly prized for the cage and the aviary; two examples, now in the possession of the Earl of Derby, appear to bear confinement equally as well as any of their congeners; in their disposition they are not so sprightly and animated, but at the same time they are much less noisy, a circumstance which tends to enhance rather than decrease our partiality for them.
Few birds tend more to enliven the monotonous hues of the Australian forests than this beautiful species, whose “pink-coloured wings and glowing crest,” says Sir T. Mitchell, “might have embellished the air of a more voluptuous region.”
Its note is more plaintive than that of C. galerita, and does not partake of the harsh grating sound peculiar to that species.
General plumage white ; forehead, front and sides of the neck, centre of the under surface of the wing, middle of the abdomen, and the basal portion of the inner webs of the tail-feathers tinged with rose-colour, becoming of a rich salmon-colour under the wing; feathers of the occipital crest crimson at the base, with a yellow spot in the centre and white at the tip; bill light horn-colour; feet dark brown.
The sexes are nearly equal in size; but the female has the yellow spots in the centre of the crest more conspicuous and better defined than her mate, whose crest, although larger, is not so diversified in colour as that of his mate; on the other hand, the salmon tint of the under surface is much more intense in the male than in the female.
The Plate represents the two sexes about the natural size.
Gould, John. Birds of Australia Vol V. London: Gould, 1848. Internet Archive. Contributed by Smithsonian Libraries. Web. 6 April 2019.
Russell, Roslyn. The Business of Nature: John Gould and Austrlia. Canberra: National Library of Australia. 2011.
Tree, Isabella. The Ruling Passion of John Gould. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991.
Created 6 April 2019; last modified 8 September 2023