5i6 NESTS AND EGGS OP AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



catching gleams of this white cloud long after the flock was otherwise 

 iindistiuguishable ; and they were still flying up the creek. Tliis 

 decided me, and I determined on the monow to go after them until 

 I f oimd them. Vei-y early dawn found me stirring ; I had done the 

 seven miles I had previously travelled by an hour after sunrise, and 

 yet there were no signs of the birds. Another two miles, and the 

 creek looked less and less hkely for water ; the channel was degene- 

 rating in size and depth, the timber was getting tliiuner and less 

 continuous, and I began to think I had trusted too much to my 

 presumed knowledge of the habits of my Corella friend. I felt 

 dispirited ; I had left camp without any breakfast (a very foolish thing 

 for anyone to do, if he can help it, for there is nothing like a full 

 stomach to give joluck), for water was bad, and anxiety had taken 

 away my appetite. I was now nine miles from the morning's camp, 

 the horses were thirsty, and the creek looked so unlikely that I was 

 just upon the point of turning back when my eye caught the white 

 gleams, so well known, of the birds' wings. It was a long way ofi, at 

 least three miles up the creek, but there was no mistake, there were 

 my friends of the night before. With great glee I urged on, and the 

 gleam resolved itself into flocks, and the flocks into innumerable indi- 

 viduals. What strange white trees are those ahead? Surely they 

 cannot be the Corellas ou them : yes, indeed they are, a perfect forest 

 of Cockatoos ! My heart beat high with pleasui'able excitement ; 

 visions of an interior lake, and a consequent happy homestead, rose 

 before me, and I felt pleased that my tnist in my feathered friends 

 had not deceived me. Another halt, and my astonishment was indeed 

 great; they were really trees ahead, and, instead of leaves, they were 

 loaded with Corellas. What extraordinary numbers! Excitement 

 made me cjuicken my pace from the usual explorer's walk to a canter, 

 and I was rewarded by the sight of a fine hole of water and discoveiy 

 of a veritable Cockatoos' haunt; the home of the Curella! 



" Oh ! the noise, the frightful noise, as I rode under the trees to 

 tiie water's edge ! What a babel of tongues, what incessant scrcccliing, 

 what a whirling, flying, moving mass of noise ; 50,000 Cockatoos all 

 screaming at once ! Just for one moment try and realize it, 

 reader, and you will involuntarily put your fingers to stop yoiu' 

 ears. 'What incredible numbers; the air is wliite with them, 

 the trees are white with them, and the giound round the 

 edge of the water is white with them ! I had seen Cockatoo 

 ' holes ' before, but never such a scene as this ; it was evident 1 had 

 hit upon a favourite haunt, and one in which tiiey were not often 

 disturbed, even by blacks. I determined to camp, if it was only to 

 see the birds; but in half-an-liour they had all gone 



" About evening the birds began to rctiu'n, and I detennined to 

 try and estimate their nvunbers ; the task was not so difficult as at 

 first sight it appeared, for the birds settle on the trees and remain 

 i|ui(t, with the exception of odd ones flying down now and again to 

 (Irink. Well, I counted about 100 as they sat close together on the 

 branches, then from that I estimated the number that were on half 

 the tree, and made 750, double that is 1,500 on one tree; the tiees 



