6o



Dr. A. G. Butler,



■eggs are considered rare and I only know of three or four sets

being taken in Tasmania. I have never seen a Black Cockatoo

in captivity, and do not know how they would manage, without

their usual diet.


I have found only two nests during a period of thirty years

and, strange to say, both were on the slopes of Mt. Wellington,

within 8 or 9 miles of Hobart; though of course in secluded

gullies and out of the tract of the ordinary run of mankind or

even school boys. One of these nests contained two young ones

when found in February, and in the other the birds were sitting

late in December ; on visiting the former nest about a week later

the two young birds were observed, the parents still feeding them

and they still retained a fair amount of black down on the back

and breast, the following week they had disappeared, most

probably having retired to the highlands round the Southern

end of Mt. Wellington. .


I hope that these few notes will be of some interest to

members as I am afraid that it will be many years before any one

succeeds in keeping these birds in captivity, much less in rearing

the young. A. L. Butler.


Hobart , Tasmania,


Sept. 2 3rd, 1907.



AVICULTURAL NOTES FOR 1907.


By Arthur G. Butler, Ph. D.


My article published in the August issue of our Magazine

brought my notes on the present year’s experiences up to July

4th, at which date I had not reared a single bird in any of my

aviaries, although I had heard one young Cockatiel being fed and

a pair of Tambourine Doves had left the nest and been starved to

death by their parents.


On the 12th I saw my Diamond Doves feeding young, one

of which left the nest on the 15th and was reared. My Satin

Bower-bird was taken ill on the 12th and died in the middle of

the day following. I sent it to be skinned and a post mortem

■examination proved it to be a cock bird, thus partly confirming

Mr. Be Sonef’s statement as to the cocks dying within a year or



