78 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



latter knows his business, and proceeds to dislodge the enemy 

 upon a slender indication. He is the expert " workman." Mr. 

 Fletcher tells me this same Black Cockatoo that eats these 

 grubs also devours the cones of the bunya nuts and of the she- 

 oaks (Casuarinas), seeds of grasses, root of herbs, the seed-vessels 

 of the eucalypts, &c. 



The Gang Gang Cockatoo, C allocephalon yaleaium, Lath.,* 

 like the Funeral, comes rarely more than once a year, and then 

 just prior to nestmg. In October 1 have noted them meandering 

 about our oullymg district, after they have left their winter 

 home among the valleys lor higher or drier country. It is the 

 only species of the genus. 



A still rarer bird with us is the Rose-breasted Cockatoo, 

 Gacatua roseica^nlla, Vieill. I have noted it in only two years. 

 In March, 1896, my young friend, Mr. Geo. Britnell, observed a 

 pair to irregularly pass near his father's house each evening for 

 weeks. Like many other birds, the iris changes from blackish in 

 the youth to orange in the adult. 



The Great Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo, Gacatua galerita, Lath. 

 (VV.), is our most familiar crested parrot. Annually it comes, 

 screeches, and leaves before the nesting time. In a previous 

 number of this journal 1 gave a short description of one 46^ 

 inches in breadth from the second primary of one wing to the 

 corresponding feather of the other. 



Of all our parrots the most familiar is the Rose Hill, Platy- 

 cercus eximius, Shaw, commonly called Rosella. 



This species, along with all the order under review this 

 evening, is too well known to need description. It is very 

 numerous at times (^though less so on the east of Melbourne 

 thar> on the west side), and very destructive among large fruits, 

 as apples and pears. The trouble begins soon alter the young 

 begin to forage, and continues through the summer, or as long as 

 any Iruit remains upon the trees or ground. The hotter the day 

 the more persistent the invaders, as if more moisture was 

 necessary to them. During the winter and spring it picks up a 

 living in the fields. The young birds appear in our markets as 

 early as the middle of November. The old birds may use the 

 same hollow for three consecutive seasons, but I do not recognize 

 the same pair, even though it be the same. The nesting ot this 

 species is usually carried out in hollows of trees. However, 

 near Mount Violet, south-west Victoria, I have been told that it 

 is a common occurrence to find nests in rabbit burrows, and 

 occasionally in the decaying tops of fence posts, owing to trees 

 of a suitable nature being scarce. 



Four short notes on this familiar bird may be interesting. The 

 first is of a Rosella now living in Hawthorn, aged 21 months, 

 that is able to speak 36 phrases, words of exclamation, and 



