GANG-GANG COCKATOO. 135 



first moult: and sometimes the young males do not assume the full 

 dress of their father, until they are two or three years old. 



The Ganga is rather less than the Rose-breasted Cockatoo. It is a 

 good climber and strong flyer, but somewhat of a clumsy bird upon 

 the ground; as might be expected from its arboreal habits. 



Nothing certain is known of the creature's habits in its wild state, 

 that is, with regard to the season or site of its nidification, the number 

 of the eggs, and whether there is, or is not, more than one brood in 

 the year; and the probability is that these particulars will not be 

 ascertained unless some Zoological or Acclimatisation Society takes the 

 matter in hand, and lodging a pair of Gangas by themselves in a 

 suitably furnished aviary, gives them an opportunity of reproducing 

 their species in captivity; for it is to be feared that as cultivation 

 proceeds in their native land, and the settlers encroach upon the wil- 

 derness, the shy and solitary Helmeted Cockatoo will at last be added 

 to the already too long list of extinct species. 



The Ganges possessed at different times by the Zoological Society 

 were fed on canary seed, hemp, and oats; to which should, we think, 

 have been added boughs of trees with leaves and buds on, among 

 which they would have been able to find some larvse of various insects ; 

 upon which there is little doubt these birds at least partially subsist 

 in their island home. 



The thought occurs to us in this connection, whether it might not 

 be possible to import the seeds of the Eucalypti in sufficient quantity 

 to constitute them an article of commerce for the feeding of Australian 

 Parrakeets and other birds, natives of that great island and its depen- 

 dencies? 



Perhaps some bird-importer or seed merchant will take the hint, 

 and make the experiment. 



It is certain that the proper food for many of the most beautiful 

 of the denizens of the Australian bush, has not yet been obtainable 

 for them in captivity; -the Gangas are a case in point, and the same 

 might be said of Pulcherrimus and Multicolor, not to speak of Bourke's 

 Parrakeets and the ever-charming Pileated Parrakeet; which can but 

 rarely be induced to exchange a life of freedom for one of confinement 

 for any length of time. 



The Port Lincoln, too, the Collared and Bauer's and Barnard's 

 Parrakeets, are not as acclimatisable as they ought to be; and the 

 reason is that the only food we are able to provide for them does 

 not quite snit their constitution, and that they pine and in too many 

 instances die for want of something we cannot give them. "What more 

 likely than that this desideratum should be the seeds of the Eucalypti, 



