OF VICTORIA. 253 



certainly sport *' like spirits of light," but they seem to act 

 like spirits of darkness in the wheat-field. 



The food is seeds, grain, and bulbs. In captivity a 

 cockatoo will eat a miscellaneous lot, and say a deal. 

 Recently one in a Melbourne shop asked the caretaker for 

 a drink. " Cocky " got it from a teapot, and said, " Thank 

 you." 



Nest. — A hollow at a high altitude in a large eucalypt is 

 used, and the eggs hatch out on the dry dust. 



Eggs. — Two for a pitting ; white. Length, 1*5 inches; 

 breadth, 1"2 inches. 



But all cockatoos are not harmful. The black-plumaged 

 portion have rather a good name, and concerning our 

 Victorian common one I supply some remarks. It is the 

 lUilck Cockatoo, C alyptorhynchus fuiiereus, Shaw (yellow 

 patch on ear coverts and yellow band on tail). 



This species is found in the mountainous parts of Vic- 

 toria. Three or more great birds screeching in their heavy 

 flight along a humid valley impresses one. It does so 

 especially in the springtime, by the peculiar life it then 

 leads, as one sits upon a hill-side above millions of wattle- 

 blooms watching the slow flap of the great black bird 

 within a few yards of your hidden form. It is so different 

 an observation to watching the Sericornis (Scrub-Wren) 

 beneath the jungle of ferns, musks, and small acacias below, 

 hunting for its food. The staj)le diet of the Funeral 

 species is the larvae of the Goat Moth or similar kinds, 

 according to their abundance, and I venture to say par- 

 tiality is shown for them as by the Roman epicure, the 

 Australian bushman, or the aborigine. The present 

 riter has also found them " tasty." I have seen great 



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