72 CACATUID.T,. 



or one youni,' one witliout ;i hinjile exception. ( )n the ist April. i.'^iiJ. my nianauer ^ot me one 

 egs, and during; the following; ten days <;ot three more. (Jn the 22nd .\pril 1 went out with him 

 and a blackfellow, and the latter climbed si.\ trees, f^'etting from four of the nesting-places one 

 fresh egg in each, and finding a young bird in another, and from the remaining one a young one 

 had apparently just left it. li\ery nest was in a dead White Bo.\ tree, excepting one. which 

 was in a dead Gum. Several of the nesting-places were in the remaining portion of broken off" 

 hollow branches, and many feet away from the main trunk, the others being in the trunks, the 

 entrance to which was where a branch had been broken out. The eggs were all laid on the 

 decaying wood found in these cavities, and varied from two to four feet six inches from where 

 they were deposited to the entrance. I got in all that season eight eggs, h\e being fresh, and 

 three had rather large young ones in them, but which I managed to blow. The last egg I 

 received was taken (piite fresh on the 2')th of |une, n/Oj, by a friend. The best time to find 

 them is about sun down, when if you hear the screech of the bird in the nesting season you will 

 probably see one or both making for the nest. Most of the nesting-places were in dead trees. 

 All these nests were found on Wambangalang and the Springs Stations, prmcipally on the 

 former." 



Mr. George Savidge, of Copmanhurst, Upper Clarence River, New South Wales, writes 

 me as follows: — " Ciilvptofhvnchus vifidis is, I believe, the commonest species of Black Cockatoo 

 inhabiting this district, although it is not by any means numerous. It is found mostly in pairs 

 and sinall Hocks, and is very fond of gullies containing Casuariiun, upon the seeds of which they 

 feed. I have seen places where the ground has been strewn with the husks or leavings of these 

 Oak seed cones, which have been eaten by the birds. They are much easier to approach than 

 the other species of Black Cockatoos. Several of their nests have been found by us. An egg in 

 niy cabinet has to me a very interesting history. While taking the egg of Bank's Cockatoo 

 on I jth May, previously alluded to, a farmer friend close by came upon the scene, and informed 

 me he could show me another nest of a 1 Slack Cockatoo close to his homestead. It was too late 

 to \isit it that evening, so next day, 14th May, igoo, 1 sent Mi. W. Griffiths and my son out to 

 inspect, and they were shewn the nest, which was, like all those found, situated in the main 

 barrel of a liucalypt which had been broken off about sixty feet from the ground. The egg 

 was placed on a good few Eucalyptus leaves some distance down, so much so that some of the 

 top had to be broken away before the egg could be reached. This bird was very daring, refusing 

 to leave the tree : my son Clarence could ha\e killed it with a short stick. It put up its feathers, 

 flapped its wings, and bit the tree. Mr. T. Sabien, who sliowed the boys the nest, was also 

 present and a witness to this extraordinary behaviour. The breeding season here is in April or 

 May." 



From Blackwood, South Australia. Mr. Edwin Ashby kindly sends me the following notes : — ■ 

 " Calyptorhvnchus viridii I met with in the heavily timbered districts of the north coast of Kangaroo 

 Island, and obtained a pair near their nesting-places in a hole in a fairly tall Sugar Gum, about 

 half a mile from the coast, and from which by means of a rope some boys climbed to and secured 

 for me an incubated egg. These birds li\e there principally on the seeds of the She Oak ( Casual iiui 

 i/iiadi'ivalrii )." 



Writing me while resident al Hamilton, in the Western district of N'ictoria, III'. W. 

 Macgillivray remarks : — " Calyptoi'Iiyiichus lun'dls is not so numerous here as C. funerciis. and 

 prefers the northern part of the District along the (ilenelg Ki\er, where it nests, also the scrub 

 near the South .\ustralian border." 



Only one egg is laid for a sitting : they \ary in size and form from o\al to a nearly true 

 ellipse and swollen ellipse, and are of a dull white, the shell being fairly smooth and lustreless, 

 but having minute pittings, invisible as a rule, unless examined with a lens. An egg taken on 

 Wambangalang Station in April, 1880, measures : — Length r8 x 1-36 inches. Another talcen 



