CACA'IUA. 79 



maize gives one good cover to do so; several of their mates always mount guard on the loftiest 

 trees to give the alarm. The nesting-places I have found contained two eggs in each, and they 

 were generally in the tall Hucalyptus in ijuiet remote places." 



Mr. H. L. White, of Belltrees, Scone, has sent me the following notes : — " Camilla ^alcnta 

 is e.xtremely plentiful and sery mischievous, causing considerable damage to the maize 

 crops. When pressed for food in the winter months they attack pumpkins and pie melons, into 

 which they tear large holes and devour the seeds. 1 have noted hundreds of pie melons along 

 the river banks with the seeds scooped right out by the Cockatoos. These birds apparently 

 occupy the same roosting quarters for a great length of time. I have known a flock of several 

 hundreds, during the past thirty-five years, to roost in the same clump of timber every night. 

 \'ery old residents state that the site referred to has been used by the birds ever since the district 

 was settled. The noise made when going to roost is very remarkable, and not easily forgotten. 

 During these years of observation, many of the roosting trees have died, killed evidently 

 by the birds nipping the small twigs off. W'hen a tree dies it is abandoned for a living one in 

 close proximity. In my younger days 1 frequeijtly raided the roosts on moonlight nights and 

 shot dozens of the birds, but the site was never entirely deserted. Nests are common, and 

 invariably in holes in the highest trees growing near rivers or creeks." 



While resident at Hamilton, in \ictoria, Dr. W. Macgillivray sent me the following note: — 

 " Cacatim galii'itu and Litimiis iiasica are numerically very strong, large flocks of either species 

 being no uncommon sight, especially on the newly sown crops in late autumn. A family of 

 bird-catchers in Hamilton sent o\er three hundred young birds of these two species away to 

 market in 1899, and have been doing the same for the last fifteen years without appreciably 

 diminishing their numbers." Since resident at Broken Hill, in South-western New South Wales, 

 Dr. Macgillivray writes : — " Cncntiin ffalcrita is common on the Darling River, and breeds there, 

 but does not invade tlie back country. Young birds are often brought o\er here from about 

 Menindie." 



Dr. L. Holden writes as follows from Southern Tasmania: — " On the 18th December, 1899, 

 I saw a flock of twenty-four White Cockatoos (Cacatiia salcyita) fly o\er Glenora Railway 

 Station, making their usual discordant noise, and I have seen large flocks in the Derwent \ alley, 

 also at the Styx River." 



From Waratah, Mount Bischoft, Tasmania, Mr. E. D. Atkinson sends the following note ;— 

 " I have never known Cacatiia •ialcvita anywhere more abundant than in the open country on the 

 west coast of Tasmania, where I have seen flocks of hundreds busily engaged feeding amongst 

 the sea-weed on the beaches. .\lso, I ha\ e met with it in large numbers in the thickly wooded 

 ranges near Rockingham Bay, Queensland." 



From Glenorchy, Tasmania, Mr. Malcolm Harrison writes me : — " Some years ago Cacatiia 

 galci'ita was plentiful, comparatively speaking, in those parts of Tasmania with which I was best 

 ac(iuainted, viz., the midland portions. I can remember it appearing in considerable flocks 

 around the grain fields ready to take toll as soon as opportunity offered, \^'ar was declared 

 against them, and many a weary tramp have I had in a vain effort to get at them with a gun. 

 The wary sentinels, however, perched on the topmost branches of the highest neighbouring trees, 

 rarely failed to prevent an approach within gunshot, and one had to be contented to scare the 

 birds away without injuring them. My opportunities of observation are now certainly limited, 

 but from what I can see and learn they are not now to be round in anything like their former 

 numbers. I have not myself observed them south of the Derwent Ri\ er, but a few seasons ago 

 found a pair nesting at (jlenora, near that river." 



The nesting-place usually selected is in a hollow spout or trunk of a Eucalyptus, a dead 

 tree being fr&juently chosen, and often at a great height from the ground. 



