i8 



I have seen it eating many kinds of bush fruits. It also eats the flower of 

 the honeysuckle bodily ; and frequents the gardens of the western settlers 

 for the plums and cherries which they delight to cultivate. 



"Many of the habits of Swainson's Lorikeet greatly resemble those of 

 pigeons. For instance, they go in pairs, and these pairs frequently join 

 with others to form small flocksofteu or a dozen couples; and on occasions 

 which seem to be dependent on a peculiar state of the weather, they collect 

 in large flocks of one or two thousand. All their habits may be noticed in 

 tree-frequenting species of pigeons. The lorikeet, as well as some other 



parrots, flies much like a pigeon They are capable of enduring 



a considerable degree of cold, and are often at a great height in the moun- 

 tains of all parts of New South Wales. I have several times seen flocks 

 of them flying about in snow storms. They have, however, a great dislike 

 to rain, and in wet weather hide away in hollow trees and under the 

 broad leaves of palms and other plants. They breed in hollow trees, like 

 the majority of parrots, but I watched one pair which reared their brood in 

 a hole excavated with remarkable expedition in the bulky stem of a grass 

 tree not six feet from tlje ground. The eggs are usually two or four in num- 

 ber, and the few pairs of young birds which I have taken and reared were 

 always couples— a cock and a hen. The old birds are very attentive to the 

 the young, and affectionate among themselves ; and the young are fed with 

 the syrup, or honey, which the old birds get from their crops for the purpose. 

 This syrup is, I suppose, partially digested, a circumstance which may 

 account for the difficulty which is experienced in rearing the young birds 

 on artificial syrup or bee's honey, but they will thrive on soft, pulpy fruit." 



The author considers nearly all the Australian parrots to be partly 

 insectivorous, and says he has often seen Cockatoos with large beetles in 

 their claws. 



Passing over the account of the Lyre-bird, the Emu and the Brush 

 Turkey — which though most interesting in themselves are not birds with 

 which our readers are likely to have a personal acquaintance — we find, in a 

 chapter on the Fauna of Western Australia, some notes on parrots which 

 we cannot refrain from extracting. 



"The cockatoos and parrots are the most characteristic birds of the 

 district. They are most abundant in the interior, especially where the 

 trees form woods and groves. There are at least eight spieces or varieties of 

 cockatoos in the country between Swan River and Shark Bay. The 

 commonest is the Sulphur-crested (Cacalua galetita) which, in some parts 

 of the country, especially where the rivers are edged with mangrove 

 thickets, may be seen in flocks so great that the trees look as if covered 

 with masses of white wool. If these huge flocks, which on the Gascoigne 

 sometimes number thirty or forty thousand birds, are fired at, the screaming 

 they set up is deafening. There are two varieties of the Black Cockatoo — 



