172 IN AUSTRALIAN WILDS 



damage. It is best that the trappers should work 

 on the plains. At present there is no sign that the 

 Rose-breasted Cockatoo will become rare; I saw 

 countless thousands in Riverina. Trapped birds are 

 sold in Sydney for about ninepence apiece. The dealers 

 resell them at a good profit, chiefly, I believe, to officers 

 and seamen of overseas vessels. Large numbers are 

 taken to European countries. Besides using the nets, 

 trappers collect fledglings from the nests, and rear 

 them for market. They know nearly every nest in 

 their district, and go the rounds twice in a season, 

 securing a large number of baby birds each time. 

 Only a skilled climber can succeed at this work, for 

 many of the nest hollows are in lofty limbs of dead 

 trees. When the lowest bough of a tree is from 

 twenty to thirty feet above the ground, the Galah- 

 hunter ascends with the aid of a rope, looped around 

 the trunk. Planting his feet firmly against the bole, 

 he jerks the rope up a few feet, and pulls his body 

 after it, repeating the action until he can grasp a 

 bough. 



Several farms were visited by the trappers, and 

 they were welcomed at all. Each morning the nets 

 were worked with varying success. When I left 

 them the men had three hundred birds in the cages. 

 At one pleasant homestead a hut was placed at our 

 disposal, and the landowners, two brothers and two 

 sisters, treated me with especial kindness. One of 

 the sisters was a lover of birds, and had tamed several 

 Galahs without caging them. Day long, she said, 

 the birds were away with the flocks, but towards sun- 

 down they returned to the homestead, where they re- 

 mained for the night. I saw three of these tame- 

 wild birds on a favourite perch near the windmill. 

 The most of the birds on the estate were protected, 

 and many of them had responded to kindness. 

 In the home paddocks several nests of the "Blue 

 Bonnet" [Psephotus xanthorrhous] , a beautiful little 





