CACATUA. 93 



found ill the dry hack country. I have met with it freiiuently alon^' the course of the Lachlan 

 and Murrunibid,L,'ee Rivers, and I have seen immense Hocks feedin.i; on the pkains a few miles 

 distant from the latter river. On the approach of evening they leave their feeding ground and 

 take up their tiuarters for the night in the thick fringe of heavy timber along the river, presenting 

 a most anmiated and interesting scene. Hundreds of the birds dash here and there with rapid 

 flight through the trees, their white plumage contrasting strongly with the heavy dark green 

 fringe of the towering B-ucalypts, and thrown into stronger relief by the rays of the setting 

 sun. In some of the trees the birds might be observed clinging in all kinds of attitudes, 

 or jumping nimbly from branch to branch, whilst in other places numbers were clinging head 

 downwards at the extreme ends of the branches, the whole llock meanwhile keeping up an 

 incessant and almost deafening noise." 



Dr. Henry Sinclair, of Sydney, write me as follows :—" Twenty-six years ago a bird- 

 dealer made me a present of a Long-billed Cockatoo, or ' Corella,' who was then known 

 to be more than ten years of age, and shortly after he gave me another, who was a little 

 over three years old. Thus for twenty-six years I ha\e had these two pets, and have found them 

 a continued source of pleasure, and although the elder bird is now thirty-six years old, and the 

 younger one nearly thirty, yet they are in such good plumage, and so li\ely and playful, one 

 would think that they were young birds. They have been treated with kindness and aftection, 

 which they have repaid in many ways by showing the lo\e they hax'e for those that have lieen 

 kind to them. The elder is imperious, tyrannical, loquacious and domineering over his younger 

 mate, and is very jealous when anyone notices him ; the latter does not speak so well, is coarser, 

 and more clumsy in all he does. However, the elder is not a great linguist, but what he does 

 say is in a most human voice, his great /nr/i' being mimicry. If anyone is sewing he holds his 

 foot up and draws his bill back as if he were using a needle and thread; when the floor is 

 scrubbed he scrubs the bottom of his cage; if he sees one with a pipe he will immediately strike 

 a match for you on his cage, and in fact imitates nearly everything that is done about the house. 

 These two birds are hardy and rarely ever ill, and eat chiefly cracked corn, and are fond of raw 

 potatoes and fruit. They are let out frequently to roam about the yard, and thoroughly enjoy 

 themselves. To sum up my experience and obser\ation of birds of this species, I would say 

 they are noisy and require careful training to make them nice pets, but if they are obtained from 

 the nest one will find they will become good talkers, clever mimics, lively and very loving birds." 



Mr. G. A. Keartland sent me the following note from Melbourne, \'ictoria : — "' Licmctis 

 «rts/c(7 lives almost exclusively on a small yam which it digs up with its long bill. Of course 

 such a vast amount of digging must wear the upper mandible very rapidly, but this is compen- 

 sated for by the rapidity of its growth. An old pet bird tried to lever a brick out of a drain with 

 its bill, and split the upper portion from near the point to the base. I mended the break, and in 

 three weeks the split portion had grown down to the point, and before the end of the following 

 week no trace of the injury was visible. It is remarkable that when portions of Riverina near 

 the Murrumbidgee River were used as cattle stations, these birds bred there in hundreds, but 

 during the past thirty-five years the cattle have been replaced by sheep, and the Long-billed 

 Cockatoos ha\e deserted the vicinity so completely that a youth from that district could not be 

 persuaded that the Corellas had ever been found there." 



While resident in Hamilton, Victoria, Dr. W. Macgillivray sent me the following notes: — 

 "The Long-billed Cockatoos (Licinctis iiasicn) nearly all nest about the same time, and are very 

 regular in doing so; every year during the last week in August two fresh eggs are usually to 

 be found in most of the nests, but sometimes three are laid. The long upper bill of the Corella 

 (L. naiica) seems to be chiefly of service to root up the ground in search of food, at the present 

 day freshly planted wheat or oats, but no doubt in days gone by it fed on nati\e roots and 

 bulbs, now completely exterminated by sheep." 



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