24 BIRDS or AUSTRALIA. 



nest. The tree was broken in pieces by the fall, and the 

 contents of the hole or nest destroyed ; the fragments, how- 

 ever, were sought for with the greatest care, and all that could 

 be found are sent you. It may perhaps be as well to state, 

 that both while the tree was being felled and for a short time 

 afterwards, a Hawk kept attacking the Cockatoo, which flew 

 in circles round the tree before it fell, uttering its loudest and 

 most mournful notes, and at times turning upon the Hawk, 

 until at length it flew ofi"." 



Mr. G. French Angas informs me that this bird " lays two 

 white eggs in some large rotten gum-tree, generally where 

 one of the large branches has rotted off" at the fork ; inside 

 this hole, which occasionally extends five or six feet down 

 the bole of the tree, the bird scrapes and clears away some 

 of the rotten wood until a sort of seat is formed ; for it is a 

 very rude attempt at making a nest. The laying commences 

 about the latter end of October or beginning of November. 

 The bird, which at other times is very shy and wild, now 

 becomes very tame ; and I have known an old bird to perch 

 herself quietly close to me while I have been examining the 

 hole beneath which contained her eggs. When the young are 

 hatched, both the old birds go to the adjacent grounds for 

 a supply of food, which generally consists of the seeds of some 

 leguminous plant, and having filled their crops and throats, 

 they both return, when one of them commences feeding one 

 young one, and the other attends to and feeds the second. 

 The young birds eat an immense quantity of seeds, and are 

 very soon able to leave the nest ; but the old ones continue to 

 feed them for some time longer. They utter a very peculiar 

 low, continued, plaintive, screeching cry when hungry. As 

 the old birds disgorge the food and push it into the mouth of 

 the young they make a very curious noise, sounding like 

 ' chucJca, chucka, chucka,' rapidly repeated." 



The eggs are one inch and eight lines long by one inch and 

 four lines broad. 



