NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 62I 



usual. Near Point CloateSj the Westom Long-bills are said by the 

 natives to breed in munbers in the clifls on the sea coast, whei'e a water- 

 hole is situated. Mr. Tom Carter has obsen'ed birds passing over from 

 inland towards that direction. He also states they breed in numbers 

 in the hollow stems of mangrove-trees on the islands in Exmouth Gulf. 



The fu"st aiithcnticated eggs of this species were three in number, 

 taken by Mr. Carter, on the 22nd September, 1888, from the hollow spout 

 of a gum-tree on the Minilga River. 



The birds would appear to be decidedly erratic in the choice of a 

 situation for a nest, for aboxit the beginning of October, 1892, some 

 twenty-five miles inland, Mr Carter found the young of Western Long- 

 billed Cockatoo in a hole within a large white ants' hillock, although gum- 

 trees were fairly plentiful in the locality. On the 15th October, 1893, 

 Mr. Carter took a full clutch of four eggs from a hollow tree on his station 

 near Point Cloatrs. 



Mr. Carter again wrote : " I was out last week and found a Cockatoo's 

 nest with three eggs, beyond reach. I was out again with a bullock 

 team, a few days after, carting timber, but something had sucked the eggs 

 and killed the Cockatoo.'' No doubt an iguana, was the culpiit. 



The chief breeding months are September and October, bvit like those 

 of its western ally, may be said to extend from August to November. 

 However, it is rej>orted that young, in down, have been seen on the upper 

 Murchison in April. 



Mr. Woodward, P.G.S., informed me he had seen aborigines taking 

 these Cockatoos from the hollows of flooded-giuns (eucalypts) on Dalgety 

 Creek, Ga.scoyne district, and I believe it must be the same species that 

 frequents the islands in Nickol Bay. It is reported that Cockatoos are 

 niimerovis on Picard Island, seven miles from Cossack, breeding in the 

 rocks. 



Sub-family — CALOPSiTTACiNiE. 



487. — Calopsittacus nov« hollandi^, Gmelin. — (440) 

 COCKATOO PARRAKEET. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol, v., pi. 45. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xx., p. 135. 



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

 also Handbook, vol. ii., p. 85 {1S65) ; North : Austn. Mus. 

 Cat., p. 254, pi. 14, fig. 9 (1889). 



Gfugrn plural Distrihiition. — Australia in general. 



Neiit. — On the dry wood dust within a hole or hollow of a. tree, u.sually 

 in open forest. Occasionally more than one pair of bii'ds breed in the 

 same tree. 



