Catching Sulphur- Crested Cockatoos. 213


how to get at them. A ladder is of no use, for it would be

impracticable to take one that was long enough without a great

deal of trouble. I have got at many nests by using a long rope.

The rope was cast over the first limb and a loop made in one end,

in which I stood, while a mate hauled me up. Once on the first

limb, with the help of a hatchet I could often reach the next.

Sometimes I had a second rope and threw it over a higher limb,

pulling myself up with it. Soon, however, I discovered a better

method. This was to provide myself with a number of steel

spikes and a tomahawk. I drove the spikes into the bole of the

tree a good distance apart and used the spikes as a ladder,

driving them in one above the other, as I mounted. By this

means the tallest of trees could be ascended in a very short time.

Of course, care had to be taken to drive the spikes in sufficiently

to support my weight, and yet not to drive them in too far, since

they had to come out again. There is, of course, an element of

danger in climbing after the nests by either method, and I always

had a mate, in case of an accident happening.


Upon reaching the nest, the tomahawk was brought into

further use, in the way of chopping a hole into the nest. As I

have mentioned, the latter is usually too far down for the birds

to be reached with the hand. Some nest hunters use a wire with

which to pull the young birds up, but this is likely to injure them.

Sometimes, when the bole has been too thick to be conveniently

■cut through, I have put a small stick down and have waited until

the young one grabbed it with his curved beak. Then I have

pulled him up far enough to catch him with 1113^ hand. But the

usual method is patiently to cut away at the limb or bole until

■one can get at the young birds direct.


The Sulphur-crested Cockatoo is a bird of very slow de-

velopment, which probably accounts for its longevity. I have

known eggs to be in the nest early in August, and then have seen

the young birds still in the nest in December. My plan was

always to let the parent birds do most of the rearing, and to take

the young ones just as they were ready to leave the nest. They

are then fully feathered, and can only be told from the old birds

by their smaller size and their softer and paler bill. A seCond__

reason for a young Cockatoo remaining longer in its nest than



