102 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



verily 'appears 'to Have an assured knowledge of the 

 fact that it possesses the most beautiful crest of any 

 bird in Australia. Alas for its owner, these 

 variegated feathers are, like the golden crowns of 

 the old-world Hoopoes, all too fatal in their beauty! 

 The Pink Cockatoo is rapidly becoming one of the 

 rarest of its race. Happily, such is not the case with 

 the regal Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, which (despite 

 the demand which exists for it as a household pet) 

 is still to be found in considerable numbers in most 

 free spaces of the land. Nor does it appear that the 

 several other crested Cockatoos are in any 

 immediate danger. Even the lovable little Cockatoo 

 Parrot seems to be holding its own fairly well. A 

 gentle, affectionate creature this, but withal pos- 

 sessing something of that perky dignity which is, 

 so to say, the sign of the crest. 



Apart from the Cockatoo tribe, there are very few 

 of our larger birds decorated with crests; and 

 among the passerine (perching) birds only four 

 genera are so distinctive that is, excluding the 

 Helmeted Honey eater, whose "helmet" is more a 

 tuft than a crest, and one or two Flycatchers, whose 

 curious little bunches of head-feathers are really 

 only half -crests and seldom remarked on. The four 

 others referred to are the Whip-Birds (three 

 species), Shrike-Tits (three species) , Wedge-bill (one 

 species), and Bell-Bird (one species), each of which 

 is a remarkable, purely-Australian genus. They 

 differ a good deal in choice of habitat, but have, on 

 the whole, more points in affinity than otherwise. 

 The Wedge-bill, a hermit-like recluse of the interior, 

 may be regarded as an inland analogy of the shy 



