Glossy Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami lathami)

Conservation status: vulnerable

19th-century bird paintings, such as those by Elizabeth Gould—gifted illustrator of so many of Australia’s birds—were often thus: male and female, sometimes their offspring, displaying distinctive features, appropriate setting, including their food, if it was known.

Elizabeth depicted near-relatives of this threatened species, but she was of an era when Australia’s birds were ‘harvested’ en masse, for various reasons, from the scientific ... to satisfying the fancies of fashion. Conservation was not yet the issue it has become.

Even so, I can’t help but imagine that her response to the question would be, “Not very well.”