160 NATURAL HISTOET SKETCHES. 



our districts, and I never saw them in large flocks ; but 

 an odd pair or two used yearly to breed in our forests. 

 The white cockatoo is a handsome bird, as large in the 

 body as the last, but the tail is very short, and it has, 

 consequently, a much rounder and thicker appearance, 

 especially when on the wing. The whole body is pure 

 white, and the crest, which is very long, sulphur-yellow, 

 and the wings are tinged with yellow underneath. It is 

 a very wary shy bird, and the call-note nothing more 

 than a loud hoarse scream. Although apparently wilder 

 in the bush than the black cockatoo, it is much oftener 

 seen as a cage bird. They are excellent eating, and 

 when stuffed and roasted in the same way, can hardly 

 be known from a duck. I recollect we used to cook 

 wood-pigeons at home so, and, when eaten with the fen- 

 man's duck sauce, a little port wine, cayenne pepper, 

 and a slice of lemon, we could not tell them from 

 widgeon. 



There is a variety of the white cockatoo with rose- 

 coloured crest, but this I never saw here. 



The most curious looking of all the species is the 

 Tan Kate, a bird nearly as large as the white cockatoo, 

 of a dirty- white colour, the shafts and under parts of the 

 feathers, and the down rose-coloured. It had no crest, 

 and the beak was not like that of the other cockatoos, 

 for the upper mandible projected with a kind of thin 

 hook, more than an inch long, over the under one, which, 

 with the large bare cere round the eye, gives the bird a 

 most grotesque old-fashioned appearance. It was not 



