.VMSTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. go I 



lolled coutaiutd a few small pieces of quartz and triturated fragments 

 of palm cabbage, with which, the crop of auotlier specimen was com- 

 pletely filled; and the idea immediately suggests itself, that the 

 powerfid bill of this bkd is a most fitting instrument for stripping off 

 the leaves near the summits of the Stafortltia elegans and other palms 

 to enable it to arrive at the central tender shoot." 



A field note from Mr. Harry Barnard to Mr. Le Souef stated that 

 these birds nest in the forest country of Cape York. They have a 

 singular habit of breaking off, with the aid of their powerful bill, green 

 twigs about the thickness of a man's finger, stripping them of their 

 leaves, and dropping the bare twigs into the nesting hole. The birds 

 then bite the twigs into pieces about two or three inches in length. 

 One nest in particular, wliich ]\Ir. Barnard examined in a large blood- 

 wood (Eucalyptus) stiuup, had the bottom of the hole covered to a depth 

 of about fom^ inches with the portions of sticks. With regard to the 

 use of this bottom hning, Mr. Le Souef suggests a feasible explanation, 

 that, as the bu'ds breed from November to March — the rainy 

 season, — and as the nesting holes ai'e usually in upright trunks which 

 would catch much rain, the " dunnage of sticks would keep the egg 

 or yomig off the damp rotten dehris at the bottom of the hole. 



Unfortunately, Mr. Barnard did not secure eggs. The holes he was 

 " shepherding " dming liis stay at Cape York, were for some reason or 

 other deserted by the birds. 



The egg Dr. Kamsay originally described was obtained in New 

 Guinea, and was taken from the wood ihhrii m a hole at the height of 

 twenty-five feet from the groimd. A bird was seen to fly from the 

 nest, and when shot proved to be the female. 



Mr. G. A. Keartlaud received the first authenticated egg of the 

 Palm Cockatoo, taken on the mainland at Cape York, February, 1897, 

 which is the example he kindly permitted me to use in my description 

 given above. 



473. — C.\LYPTORHYNCHus BAUDiNi, Vigors. — (403) 



WHITE-TAILED COCKATOO. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. v., pi. 13. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xx., p. 106. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould : Birds of Australia (1848) ; 

 also Handbook, vol. ii., p. 26 (1865; Le Souef: Victorian 

 Naturalist, vol. xvi., p. 102 (1S99). 



Geographical Distribution. — South-west Austraha. 



Nest. — A hole in a tall karri tree, or other eucalypt, in a retired 

 part of a forest. 



Eggs. — -Clutch, two ; colour, pure white. Average dimensions iu 

 inches: 1-75 x 1-37 (Gould). 



