We "naturally" think of time through the temporality of objects, through the temporality of space and matter, rather than in itself or on its own terms...We can think of it only in passing moments, through ruptures, nicks, cuts, in instances of dislocation... (Elizabeth Grosz, The Nick of Time, 2004, 5)

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Glossy Black Cockatoo

The 'Lost birds series' incorporates (if that is the correct term for images which are 'missing') an image of the Glossy Black Cockatoo, Calyptorhynchus lathami from a watercolour by the colonial artist, George Raper. The original is in the British Museum.
My bird book (A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia by Graham Pizzey) suggests that 'glossy' is a misnomer, it is 'a dull-black cockatoo with a massive bulbous bill and red panel in tail'(author's italics).
Pamela tells of seeing the Glossy Black Cockatoo in the Wattagans, close to where she lives. We may also have them around here but they are easily mistaken for their more raucous cousins, the Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos which makes identification difficult.
They have a specific diet--the seeds of the casuarina trees and a specific feeding ritual--picking up each seed pod with one claw and passing it to the next before breaking it apart with its bill (PF pers.comm.).
Their numbers are declining, possibly due to the clearing of woodlands.
So so we contend with the possibility of real 'loss'.

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