THE BIRDS OE AUSTRALIA. 
the tall maize gives one good cover to do so ; several of their mates always 
mount guard on the loftiest trees to give the alarm. The nesting-places I have 
found contained two eggs in each, and they were generally in the tall 
Eucalyptus in quiet remote places.” Mr. H. L. White added : “ Cacatua 
galerita is extremely plentiful and very mischievous, causing considerable 
damage to the maize crops. When pressed for food in the winter months 
they attack pumpkins and pie melons, into which they tear large holes and 
devour the seeds. I have noted hundreds of pie melons along the river banks 
with the seeds scooped right out by the Cockatoos. These birds apparently 
occupy the same roosting quarters for a great length of time. I have known 
a flock of several hundreds, during the past thirty-five years, to roost in the 
same clump of timber every night. Very old residents state that the site 
referred to has been used by the birds ever since the district was settled. 
The noise made when going to roost is very remarkable and not easily forgotten. 
During these years of observation many of the roosting trees have died, killed 
evidentty by the birds nipping the small twigs off. When a tree dies it is 
abandoned for a living one in close proximity. In my younger days I 
frequently raided the roosts on moonlight nights and shot dozens of the birds, 
but the site was never entirely deserted. Nests are common, and invariably 
in holes in the highest trees growing near rivers or creeks.” The two 
preceding notes refer to New South Wales localities. Dr. W. Macgillivray, 
writing from Hamilton, Victoria, observed : “ Cacatua galerita and Licmetis 
nasica are numerically very strong, large flocks of either species being no 
uncommon sight, especially on the newly sown crops in late autumn. A 
family of bird-catchers in Hamilton sent over three hundred young birds 
of these two species away to market in 1899 and have been doing so for the 
last fifteen years without appreciably diminishing their numbers.” 
From Tasmania Mr. E. D. Atkinson reported : “I have never known 
Cacatua galerita anywhere more abundant than in the open country on the 
west coast of Tasmania, where I have seen flocks of hundreds busily engaged 
feeding amongst the seaweed on the beaches. Also, I have met with it in 
large numbers in the thickly wooded ranges near Rockingham Bay, 
Queensland.” From Glenorchy, Tasmania, Mr. Malcolm Harrison wrote : 
“ Some years ago Cacatua galerita was plentiful, comparatively speaking, 
in those parts of Tasmania with which I was best acquainted, viz., the 
midland portions. I can remember it appearing in considerable flocks 
around the grain fields ready to take toll as soon as opportunity offered. 
War was declared against them, and many a weary tramp have I had in a 
vain effort to get at them with a gun. The wary sentinels, however, perched 
on the topmost branches of the highest neighbouring trees, rarely failed to 
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