WHITE COCKATOO. 
Australia. They are found all the year along the river and a great distance 
back ; they congregate in great numbers at nesting time and take possession 
of the holes worn by the weather into the high cliffs rising several hundreds 
of feet out of the water ; here they lay their eggs upon the bare sand and 
hatch out their young. It is a very interesting sight to see many hundreds 
i 
of these birds half out of their nesting holes or sitting upon the ledges of rock 
near their nests ; depressing and raising their beautiful yellow crests. They 
are very noisy birds and keep up a continual screeching call. They nest in 
November and December. The bird found upon Kangaroo Island is rare, 
and all the time we were there we did not see more than half a dozen birds ; 
they were met with in the open country near the coast hunting for seeds upon 
the ground ; they appeared a much smaller bird. Birds found on the West 
Coast of South Australia build in the hollows of large gums.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby states : “ These birds still nest in the more wild parts 
of the Adelaide Hills. Last month (May 1916), I saw a flock of about fifty 
in the large Red Gums ( E . rostrata ) at Buckland Park about 20 miles north 
of Adelaide ; the residents informed me that they had been there for some 
years, being attracted by the seeds of the tall Milk thistle ( Silybum marianum 
Gaertn.) which grows there in great quantities, many up to 8 ft. in height. 
I have also seen it nesting in the north-west of Kangaroo Island.” 
Mr. Christian, from Victoria, noted : “As a rule more destructive than 
G. funereus. It seems to prefer the more lightly timbered places of the plains 
to the heavily timbered ranges. As this is a large wheat-growing district (as 
well as grazing) these birds are shot down, as they do a lot of damage in the 
wheat field. Their screechings may be heard in almost any timber bordering 
a wheat field.” 
Mr. J. P. Rogers recorded at Melville Island : “ Cooper’s Camp, 1 Nov. 11. 
These birds are sparingly distributed in the vicinity of my camp. Ten miles 
south-east of Snake Bay. Numerically about the same as at Cooper’s Camp.” 
From the Austr. Mus. Special Cat., No. 1, Vol. III., I quote Mr. Geo. 
Savidge’s notes : “ Cacatua galerita was at one time very numerous in this 
district, but the havoc it played on the ripening maize fields and upon newly 
planted grounds caused it to be persecuted, poisoned and shot to such an 
extent that amongst the more settled parts it is indeed a rare bird. I have 
seen the ground white with them pulling up the maize as it showed above 
ground, and soon destroying a whole field of it. In the early days poisoning 
was chiefly resorted to, maize being soaked in strychnine diluted in water, 
and scattered about. Upon one occasion I saw the poor creatures laying dead 
in large numbers in the bush. These birds are wary and difficult to approach 
and seem to know a gun ; it is seldom one can give them a surprise, although 
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