63.2 Ml". T. Carter on Licmetis pastinator. 



favourite foods is the bulb of a small species of Sundew 

 (Drosera) tliat grows as soon as winter rains fall, bearing a 

 small white flower. The scarlet berries of a small creeping 

 ])lant (the name of which is nnknown to me) that grows 

 abundantly on sand plains are also much eaten. Probably 

 the March visits of the Cockatoos to the station are made in 

 order to feed upon the newly sown wheat-grains. The 

 locality is mostly heavy timber country in its natural state, 

 the nearest homestead to the eastward being about forty miles 

 distant^ and the country to the south and west being much 

 the same accounted for the Cockatoos taking such heavy toll 

 of Mr. Muir's crops. 



The breeding-season commences apparently in September, 

 continuing through October, when the young are mostly 

 hatched. Two or three eggs is the usual clutch, and the 

 nesting-cavity is almost invariably in the ends of hollow limbs 

 or in the main stem of large living Jled (Juin Trees {Euca- 

 hjphis caluphylla). Ring-barked trees [i.e. trees purposely 

 killed by the axe) were not chosen for nesting- sites, 

 neither were the Jarrali trees, which were more numerous 

 than Red Gums and grew along with them. 



Several nesting-cavities came under my notice, evidently 

 containing young birds, but all were in inaccessible situations 

 (to me), and the station hands were too busy harvesting to 

 spare the time to fell one of the giant trees. One hole was 

 shown me, about thirty feet only from the ground, in 

 the trunk of a very large Red Gum, where a brood had been 

 reared for three consecutive years. Apparently the young 

 birds remain in the nesting-place until they are strong on the 

 Aving, as jNIr. F. Muir said that he and some of his men had 

 several times cut down a tree to obtain youngsters, and just 

 as the tree was falling they had emerged and flown strongly 

 away. One nest, from which a parent bird had been observed 

 to fly on difierent occasions (see text-fig. 12, p. 633) was 

 placed in a tall green [i.e. living) Red Gum, surrounded 

 on all sides by acres of gaunt dead trees. The sitting birds 

 leave the nests rather wildly, and do not readily return. 



At the earliest signs of dawn, long before sunrise, the 



