28 SLENDER-BILLED GOOKATOO. 



of the Parrot family, whether Cockatoos, Lories, Parrakeets, or Parrots 

 proper, in one genus, presents so many advantages to the student of 

 ornithology, that it would be impertinent to enlarge upon it here: 

 where all are designated by the one generic appellation of Fsittacus, 

 the veriest tyro in natural history will see at a glance to what family 

 a Plydolophus, Brotogenis, Licmetis, TricJioglossus, Macrocercus, Calyp- 

 torynchus, Tanygnathus, Triclaria, and Palceomis belongs; whereas 

 under the old system the creatures so designated might, for all he 

 could tell, be a kind of ostrich, humming-bird, or baboon even, instead 

 of a variety of Parrot. 



The general colour of this bird is white, but the forehead and face 

 are reddish, a tinge of the same colour is apparent on the vent, and 

 a patch of blue bare skin surrounds the eye; the beak is white, and 

 the upper mandible extraordinarily prolonged, whence some of the 

 creature's names, both English and scientific. 



When in their wild state the Slender-billed Cockatoos, in addition to 

 preying voraciously on the ripening crops of the farmer, feed on various 

 kinds of bulbous plants, the roots of which they dig with much expert- 

 ness out of the hard sun-baked soil of Australia, and do not disdain 

 a good fat wood-grub as an occasional relish, particularly during the 

 breeding season. 



Like all the rest of the Parrots they make no nest, but the female 

 lays two or three white eggs on the soft wood of some hollow bough, 

 and hatches them in about twenty- one days; there are usually two 

 broods in the season, and the young do not attain their full growth 

 until they are at least a year old. 



The ordinary Slender-billed Cockatoo is a native of southern and 

 south-western and eastern Australia, but a kindred species, showing 

 much more red in various parts of the plumage is found in the north, 

 and was particularly common, according to the late John Gould, in 

 the vicinity of Port Easington. 



As a proof that hasty conclusions affecting an entire race should be 

 cautiously drawn from observations embracing only a limited number 

 of individuals belonging thereto, we may here insert an account of a 

 Slender-billed Cockatoo, which we have recently received from a lady 

 of our acquaintance; and if objection should be taken, and the remark 

 made that this favourable view of the character of the Slender-billed 

 one is not more likely to be universally correct, than the unfavourable 

 one with which we opened this paper, we reply that no doubt the 

 truth lies between the two extremes, and that as another lady observed, 

 when informed that the person with whom she was conversing was an 

 Irishman, "Ah! well, there are good and bad in every country." 



