244 COCKATOOS. 



and the crops were nearly destroyed, for they 

 came in immense flocks ; and although many 

 were killed, it did not deter the others from 

 attacking the grain. The reason given, why 

 they were not now so numerous, was, that the 

 young cockatoos were not sufficiently fledged to 

 leave the nest ; so the reaper's song might be, 

 " Fly not yet, little cockles ;" for the old birds, 

 rearing their progeny in a way to provide them- 

 selves with the necessaries of life, bring them in 

 multitudes to attack a field of corn or grain, and 

 are then so bold, as to be with great difficulty 

 frightened away, although the deaths of hundreds 

 may be the consequence ; but, fortunately for 

 the settler, the harvest was this season in a more 

 forward state, and the little cockles not being in 

 " full feather," there was comparatively but few 

 marauders. 



The way " the mob" of these screaming and 

 destructive birds attack a field of grain, (or the 

 cobs of corn in a maize field,) is to fly against, 

 bear down the stalks with their weight, perch 

 upon the fallen ears, and speedily destroy them.* 

 Like all the parrot tribe, they construct no nest, 

 but lay their eggs in a hollow branch or " spout" 

 of a tree, clearing it of the rotten wood within, 



* The black cockatoo usually feeds on the trees ; the 

 white species almost invariably upon the ground. 



