SLENDER-BILLED COCKATOO. 31 



in the tree tops on the Plenty Ranges in Victoria, and — tell it not in 

 Gath — firing at them, although it was the height of their breeding- 

 season; but so tall were those eucalyptii, that our charge of large duck- 

 shot did not even bring down a leaf, and of course the birds flew 

 away to a short distance with a series of shrieks that sounded uncom- 

 monly like derisive laughter. 



Had we known what age the young ones were we should, in spite 

 of its diameter of nearly four feet, have cut down that forest giant 

 that, in one of its hollow arms, held the dearest treasure of those 

 Cockatoos; but we did not know: the young ones might be only just 

 hatched, and it would be a pity to take them, for they would not live, 

 or there might only be eggs, which would have been certain to have 

 got broken in the fall, so we left the grand old tree standing, and 

 we hope it yet rears its head towards heaven, overtopping all its fellows, 

 as it did in those far-off times. 



Ay cle mi! we were young and careless then, but the weird beauty 

 of those lonely sylvan scenes, peopled with " strange bright birds of 

 purple wing," as some poet has it, vocal with the mimic chant of the 

 Menura, the delusive tinkling of the bell-bird, the incessant demands 

 of the bald-head, monk- or friar-bird to know the hour of the day: 

 "what o' clock, what o'clock!" and at night resounding with the shrill 

 screams of the phalanger, the hoarse-grunting squeak of the opossum, 

 and the angry vociferations of the great night-jar for the restoration 

 of the dainty morsel of which, according to a colonial tradition, he had 

 been deprived by some vagrant Jew, "Ma Pork, Ma Pork", impresses 

 itself upon our recollection with a vividness and intensity that no lapse 

 of time, or distance has yet been able to efface or even to impair. 



But we are forgetting our friend of the slender-bill, the dainty feeder 

 on the choicest orchidaceous bulbs, no less than on the tender corn 

 of the settler, who bears poor "nosey' even less good-will than he has 

 won at the hands of the earliest writer on foreign cage-birds in this 

 land of ours. Yes: he is fond of roots, and an adept at digging them 

 out of the hard soil, for in Australia, tree orchids, that is orchids 

 growing on trees, are the exception, and not the rule, as in Tropical 

 America, the head-quarters of their race, and his long bill, that other- 

 - wise seems so disproportionate and out of place, stands him in good 

 stead, both of pickaxe and shovel, and should he find, as no doubt 

 he often does, a grub, or chrysalis of coleoptera or moth, he will be 

 quite certain not to let it go a-begging. Nevertheless, in captivity, 

 he will do very well without insect food, and, in point of fact, a very 

 great deal better, because too succulent a diet is apt to arouse feelings 

 and passions that are better left quiescent, unless a partner is presented 



