82 HISTORY OF THE PARROTS 



quest, or on one close to the field in which they ex- 

 pect to regale themselves." 



Many of the species are gregarious, and except 

 during the breeding season, are always seen in large 

 and numerous bodies; others, as the black cockatoos, 

 are met with in pairs or families. The places se- 

 lected for hatching their eggs, and rearing their 

 young, are the hollows of decayed trees, they make 

 little or no nest, but deposit their eggs, which, ac- 

 cording to the species, vary from two to five or six 

 in number, upon the bare rotten wood. In these 

 hollows, it is said, they also frequently roost during 

 the night, and such we learn is the practice of the 

 bird previously mentioned, for the same author ob- 

 serves, " Their roosting place is in hollow trees, and 

 the holes excavated by the larger species of Wood- 

 peckers, as far as these can be filled by them. At 

 dusk, a flock of parrakeets may be seen alighting 

 against the trunk of a sycamore or any other tree, 

 where a considerable excavation exists within it. 

 Immediately below the entrance, the birds all cling 

 to the bark, and crawl into the hole to pass the night. 

 When such a hole does not prove sufficient to hold 

 the whole flock, those around the entrance hook 

 themselves on by their claws and the tip of the up- 

 per mandible, and look as if hanging by the bill. I 

 have," he adds, " frequently seen them in such po- 

 sitions by means of a glass, and am satisfied that the 

 bill is not the only support used in such cases." 



The natural voice or notes of the tribe consist en- 



