CACATUA. 



83 



Dr. \\\ Mac'4illi\ray has sent me the following notes Ironi Broken Hill, in South-western 

 New South Wales: — "Cniiitiui Icadhcatci'i is not found on the Barrier Range, but is common on 

 Scrope's Range, between ISroken Hill and the river to the north-east, and in various places both 

 south and north of Broken Hill ; it is not so widely dispersed as either C. sanquinca or C. I'oscicnpilla. 

 Mrs. Barker, of Buckalow Station, about sixty miles south from here, tells me she has often 

 seen llocks of them feeding on the wild melon, which grows all o\ er the coiuitry about here. 



" During September, 1908, 1 fi;imd these Cockatoos nesting on Cox Flats, of the Mulga 

 scrub country, and on the creeks which run through it. They usually choose a large roomy 

 hollow, and lay three or four eggs on a bed of decayed wood material, the eggs being 

 usually at a depth of two to three feet. When incubating they come to water morning and 

 evening, and tal<e it in turns to do so, often flying three or four miles to drink ; they fiy slowly, 

 and one bird often comes to water nearly an hour after the other. A pair of birds will occupy 

 the same hollow year after year. (Jn the nesting-tree being approached, the outside bird gives 

 the alarm, and the mate flies screeching from the hollow, unlike the Blood-stained Cockatoo, 

 which usually leaxes its nest \ ery quietlv." 



Mr. Edward Lord Ramsay wrote me as follows from Wilgaroon Station, in Western New 

 South Wales: — " On the 14th September, 1889, I found a nesting place of Cin\itiia htuihcatfi-i in 

 a big Box tree, and after cutting thirty steps in it managed to secure a set of three fresh eggs. 

 Here these birds usually select the most inaccessible trees to nest in." 



Mr. G. A. Keartland writes me from Melbourne, X'ictoria: — '' Cacatna IcadheatcriK an inland 

 species, and is found in the most inhospitable portions of the interior, where it is usually seen in 

 pairs or small flocks consisting of parents and young. Those shot whilst I was on the exploring 

 expeditions had their crops filled with seed, which looked like skinned peas. Each of the wells 

 we sank in tlie Great Desert of North-western .Vustralia, was visited by a pair or more of these 

 birds, which came to drink and then went away. In the Wimmera District of Victoria they 

 are numerous, and assemble in small flocks, when many of them are trapped and l>roui;ht to 

 Melbourne for sale. If taken young they soon learn to speak, but are very poor talkers 

 compared with other Cockatoos." 



From Western .\ustralia Mr. Tom Carter writes me : — "The only part of Western .\ustralia 

 in which I ha\e seen Cdiatua Icadhcateri, was on the Lower Murchison River, near a range of 

 cliffs." 



The nesting-place is in a hollow, usually of a Gum tree, at a height ranging from fifteen to 

 sixty feet trom the ground. 



The eggs are three in number for a sitting, oval or long oval in form, pure white, the shell 

 being close-grained and its surface almost lustreless. A set taken on the 8th September, 1S85, 

 by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, at Ivanhoe, New South Wales, measures: — Length (A) i'55 x 

 1-13 inches; (B) 1-52 x 1-13 inches; (C) 1-53 x i-o8 inches. A set of three taken from a 

 hollow in a Gum tree fifteen feet from the ground, from which the bird was flushed by Dr. W. 

 Macgillivray, in company with Mr. William McLennan, at Sleep's Well Creek, forty-five miles 

 north of Broken Hill, in South-western New South Wales, on the 23rd September, 190S, 

 measures: — Length (A) 1-38 x 1-05 inches; (B) 1-37 x i inches; (C) 1-43 x i inches. 



Young birds resemble the adults, but are paler on the rose-coloured parts. \\'ing 9-9 inches. 



In New South Wales September and the two following months constitutes the usual breeding 

 season ot this species. 



