CAPE YORK PALM COCKATOO, 
splinters, until the bottom of the hole is covered to a depth of about 4 inches. 
On top of this platform the egg is laid. On one occasion I saw a Palm 
Cockatoo carrying a stick, but though I followed the direction of its flight for 
fully a mile, I could not discover the nesting-tree. During my former visit, 
in 1896, I found the birds far more numerous than on this occasion. 
Mr. F. L. Jardine informed me that he had noticed the same fact, and 
attributed it to the frequent visits of sportsmen (?) from Thursday Island, 
who shoot everything that comes in their way. The note of this Cockatoo 
is a loud whistling, and much more harmonious than the call of the other 
Black Cockatoos. Four clutches measure as follows : (a) 1.84 x 1.37, 
(6) 1.75 x 1.37, (c) 1.84 x 1.35, {d) 1.80 x 1.38.” 
Macgillivray, a relation of the discoverer of this Cockatoo, over sixty 
years after the first named, added quite a lot in the Emu, Vol. XIII., 
p. 155, 1914: 
“ This fine Cockatoo is a common object in the scrubs and open pockets 
on the upper end of the Cape York Peninsula. In the 1911 season 
Mr. M‘Lennan inspected numerous nesting-hollows, seventeen of which 
contained either the single egg laid by the Cockatoo or a young bird. A large 
hollow is required by the bird, consequently a big tree or dead stump is 
usually chosen to nest in. The hollows were at an average height of 35 feet 
from the ground, and were of an average depth of 4 feet, with an internal 
diameter at the nest and at the mouth of the hollow of from 10 inches 
to 2 feet. Usually, however, the entrance is smaller than the bottom of the 
hollow. The egg is always placed on a bed of splintered twigs ; these are 
carried to the nest in long pieces, and there splintered by the bird. This 
bedding may be several feet in thickness in some hollows, and only a few 
inches in others. It serves to keep the nest clean, the excreta, which is very 
oily, and the scaling of the feathers filtering through. The eggs vary a good 
deal in size and shape, the largest specimen measuring 2^ inches x 1 T % inches, 
an average of ten being lg inches x 1^ inches. A rounded specimen 
measured If inches X 1J inches ; this was also the smallest. Nests were 
found containing eggs and young birds as early as the 6th and 8th of August 
respectively, and the last on the 22nd of January — August, September, 
October and November being the principal nesting months, so that most 
of the young are reared before the commencement of the wet season. One 
nest visited on the 8th August, 1911, contained a newly-hatched young bird. 
This was again inspected on the 1st September, when it was found to be 
about half-grown, with all its feathers encased in sheaths, from 1 to 2 inches 
in length, giving it the appearance of a porcupine. This young bird was taken 
from the nest on the 18th September, 1911. The feathers were then just 
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