II HOBART AND THE MIDLANDS 67 



The other much rarer species met with on the 

 mountain is the Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus 

 xanthonotus), a very large jet-black bird with 

 saffron-coloured ears, and some brilliant saffron 

 feathers in the tail. This is one of the handsomest 

 Cockatoos, but it is practically never seen in 

 captivity owing to the extreme difficulty of getting 

 the young from the nest, and the old birds are far 

 too wild to catch or to tame. Indeed, until 

 recently a nest had never been found, but in felling 

 a gigantic gum spar a nest was discovered in a 

 hollow near the top. This Cockatoo feeds on grubs 

 which it extracts from under the bark of Gum-trees 

 and from rotten timber ; it is a powerful flier and 

 rarely lets one approach within gunshot. The 

 cry is a long-drawn screech, whooeeyia, uttered 

 when on the wing or at rest. I weU remember my 

 first view at close quarters of this magnificent bird ; 

 I had taken a little 20-bore collecting-gun into a 

 thick bit of bush on Mount Wellington in the hope 

 of shooting a Bandicoot which I knew to lodge 

 there, when I was astonished to hear the screech 

 of a Black Cockatoo quite close to me. I stopped 

 perfectly still and, after a great deal of rustling, 

 the bird burst out of the thickest part of the under- 

 scrub and settled on an old rotten gum stump 

 about twenty yards away, which it began to attack 

 with its beak, displaying to the full its saffron 

 ears and tail feathers, and its jet-black plumage 

 shining in the sunlight. As I lifted my gun it saw 

 me and made off, my shot only disturbing a few 



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