CHAP. XXXI.] GREAT BLACK COCKATOO. 227 



a considerable extensile power. I will here relate some- 

 thing of the habits of this bird, with which I have since 

 become acquainted. It frequents the lower parts of the 

 forest, and is seen singly, or at most two or three together. 

 It flies slowly and noiselessly, and may be killed by a 

 comparatively slight wound. It eats various fruits and 

 seeds, but seems more particularly attached to the kernel 

 of the kanary-nut, which grows on a lofty forest tree 

 (Canarium commune), abundant in the islands where this 

 bird is found ; and the manner in which it gets at these 

 seeds shows a correlation of structure and habits, which 

 would point out the "kanary" as its special food. The 

 shell of this nut is so excessively hard that only a heavy 

 hammer will crack it ; it is somewhat triangular, and the 

 outside is quite smooth. The manner in which the bird 

 opens these nuts is very curious. Taking one endways in 

 its bill and keeping it firm by a pressure of the tongue, it 

 cuts a transverse notch by a lateral sawing motion of the 

 sharp-edged lower mandible. This done, it takes hold of 

 the nut with its foot, and biting off a piece of leaf retains 

 it in the deep notch of the upper mandible, and again 

 seizing the nut, which is prevented from slipping by the 

 elastic tissue of the leaf, fixes the edge of the lower 

 mandible in the notch, and by a powerful nip breaks off 

 a piece of the shell. Again taking the nut in its claws, 

 it inserts the very long and sharp point of the bill and 



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