PARROTS AND COCKATOOS OF THE FOREST-LANDS 
141 
Notes . — Also called Funereal Black Cockatoo and Black Cockatoo. 
Usually in pairs or small flocks, frequenting heavily timbered mountain 
ranges and adjacent open forest-lands, also banksia scrubs during the 
winter months. It has a slow, laboured flight, and when on the wing 
usually utters a weak but harsh and discordant cry. Usually it is shy and 
wary, but occasionally while feeding the observer can approach quite near 
before it flies off. Its food consists mostly of seeds of banksias, casua- 
rinas, and hakeas, and large white horny grubs found living in eucalypts. 
To reach these grubs it tears off the bark and wood with its powerful bill, 
often making holes 8 or more inches in depth into a branch or tree-trunk. 
It is considered a useful bird, helping to keep in check many timber- 
destroying insect pests. 
Nest . — In a hollow limb or hole in a tree, usually high up from the 
ground. 
Eggs. — Usually two, white. Breeding-season : May, June, and July 
(Queensland) ; December and January in the south. 
16. Red-tailed Black Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksi Latham 
banksi — Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), a naturalist, companion of Cap- 
tain Cook on his first voyage (1768). 
Distribution . — Australia (except Cape York), and King Island. 
Notes . — Also called Banks’s Black Cockatoo and Banksian Black 
Cockatoo. Usually in pairs or small flocks, frequenting alike heavily- 
timbered and open forest-lands, also banksia scrubs. Its food consists 
chiefly of seeds of eucalypts, casuarinas, and banksias, and also large white 
grubs, the larvae of longicorn beetles. It is very similar in habits to the 
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo. The female is duller in colour than the 
male, and has yellow spots on the head, neck, and cheeks, and black bars 
on the red portion of the tail-feathers. 
Nest. — In a hollow limb or hole in a tree. 
Egg . — White. Breeding-season : May to July. 
17. White-tailed Black Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus baudini Lear 
baudini — Captain Baudin (1756-1803), of a French scientific expedition 
to Australia. 
Distribution . — South-western Australia, to Murchison River. 
Notes . — Also called Baudin’s Black Cockatoo. Usually in pairs or 
small flocks, frequenting heavily timbered and open forest-lands, also 
banksia scrubs. It is similar in habits and economy to the other species of 
the genus. 
Nest . — In a hollow limb or hole in a tree. 
Eggs . — Two, white. Breeding-season: August to October. 
18. Palm Cockatoo Probosciger aterrimus Gmelin 
Pro-bos -ci-ger — Gk, proboscis , nose; Gk, gero, to carry: a-terr -i-mus — 
L., aterrimus , very black. 
Distribution . — Northern Queensland (Cape York district only) ; also 
occurs in the Aru Islands and New Guinea. 
