Mr. T. Carter on Licraetis pastinator 



(131 



body tliickly smeared over with dry mud and vegetable 

 stains, giving the birds a very dirty appearance. Close 

 scrutiny of great numbers of the Cockatoos through my 

 binoculars at various times, when they were perched on the 

 summits of dead trees, failed to reveal any that had really 

 clean under-plumage, and I was informed that this dirty 



Text-fi"-. 11. 



Strip of standing wheat-crop trampled flat and destroyed 

 by Licmetis pastinator. 



cond''on is the normal state, and that the only clean birds 

 are recently fledged young, which soon become like the rest. 

 Some specimens presented to me, that had been shot in July, 

 were also dirty. I find no mention of this soiled plumage 

 in any account of the birds that I have read. 



AVlien corn is not obtainable, the Western Long-billed 

 Cockatoo feeds largely (like its eastern form, Licmetis nasica) 

 upon the bulbs and roots of various plants. One of its 



